


Mama Said (There'd Be Days Like This)

by joidianne4eva



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Bipolar Disorder, Blackmail, Domestic Violence, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, M/M, Mentions of attempted suicide, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-02-12 17:33:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2118675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joidianne4eva/pseuds/joidianne4eva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It’s Ma,”</p>
<p>Mandy’s words were muffled but clear enough for Mickey to understand them and he pulled away to stare at her.</p>
<p>“You saw a fucking ghost?”</p>
<p>“I saw Ma, you shithead…she’s not dead.”</p>
<p>Mickey fucking knew that he shouldn’t have gotten out of bed that morning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is unbeta'd at the moment so any mistakes are my own. 
> 
> Also if anyone wants to help me out with keeping my characters on track just drop me a line.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s Ma,”
> 
> Mandy’s words were muffled but clear enough for Mickey to understand them and he pulled away to stare at her.
> 
> “You saw a fucking ghost?”
> 
> “I saw Ma, you shithead…she’s not dead.”
> 
> Mickey fucking knew that he shouldn’t have gotten out of bed that morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still looking for a beta so all mistakes are my own. 
> 
> Posting will be every Monday and Thursday.

Mickey wasn’t having a good day.

Iggy had managed to fuck up his last run which landed him and Tony in jail _again_. Mandy had been a bitch all week, which wasn’t exactly something new but it still managed to piss him off on a daily basis. Now to top it all off Mickey’s last client of the day was being a fucking idiot, when all Mickey wanted to do was crawl back into bed and sleep for a year.

Glaring down at the bloody mess of the dumbass that Daniel had managed to hire as a bodyguard Mickey sighed. Some days it wasn’t even worth getting out of bed but with Terry locked up _,_ the family business fell to Mickey. It wasn’t like his older brothers could do shit without fucking up and they needed to eat which meant they needed money.

Straightening, Mickey ignored the fire of pain roaring up his side that said his ribs were either bruised or broken as he focused on Daniel who was staring at him wide-eyed.

“See, this shit right here is why I didn’t lend you the cash the first time you came begging,” Mickey growled as he raised his baseball bat to the shoulder that didn’t feel like it was about to fall off. “I’m gonna give your stupid ass two options; option one, you give me my money plus the fifty percent beat down fee that just got added because of this tough guy or option two, I fuck you up and still get my money plus everything else in your fucking wallet.”

Daniel’s lower lip started to tremble and Mickey swore to every God out there that if the little jackass started crying Mickey was going to kick his ass just because.

“Mickey!”

The voice made Mickey want to cringe but he didn’t turn around because Mandy wasn’t stupid enough to step in on his business. Just as expected Mandy’s footsteps slowed to a stop as soon as she was close enough to see what was going on.

“Right, so you gonna pay me, Danny-boy? Or am I gonna have to…”

“I’ll pay you!” Daniel squeaked out, his eyes darting to his bodyguard before he started digging into his pockets and Mickey noted detachedly that the guy seemed to be bleeding a bit more than he’d actually been aiming for. Whatever, it’d teach Daniel not to fuck with him in the future.

Grabbing the cash from Daniel Mickey shot him one last glare before hobbling over to where Mandy was standing.

Mickey frowned when he realised that Mandy was shaking, her eyes darting back in the direction she’d probably been running from.

“The fuck is wrong with you?” he demanded and if his harsh tone was in direct contrast to the way he pulled her closer then fuck it, he was a Milkovich , he was bound to be contrary.

Mandy clung to Mickey and that more than anything else told him that shit was serious.

“It’s Ma.”

Mandy’s words were muffled but clear enough for Mickey to understand them and he pulled away to stare at her.

“You saw a fucking ghost?”

“I saw Ma, you shithead…she’s not dead.”

Mickey fucking knew that he shouldn’t have gotten out of bed that morning.

“Mandy, listen to yourself, Ma’s dead,” Mickey explained even as he mentally went over all of the places where Iggy had hidden his meth. If his jackass of an older brother had put it in the cereal again he was going to wish they’d kept him in jail. “What did you eat?”

Mandy stared at him for a moment, her mouth opening and closing like a fish. “I just told you that Ma’s in our house and you wanna know what I’ve been eating?!” she screamed and Mickey wanted to roll his eyes so hard it made his head hurt.

“I want to know what you fucking took because you’re obviously on some shit if you think that bitch just came back from the dead and…”

“She called me cvet…” Mandy’s words made Mickey freeze, his fingers tightening on his bat.

“Get Jamie,” he ordered, already moving down the street.

“Wha…Mickey where are you going?!” Mandy shouted after him but Mickey didn’t turn around because he had a fucking ghost to kill.

*O*

Mickey shoved the door open, ignoring the way that it slammed against the wall as he locked eyes with the woman sitting on their sofa like she’d never fucking left, like she hadn’t let her kids think she was dead for almost ten years.

Familiar blue eyes met his and something in Mickey wanted to just touch her because she was dead, Terry had shown them the death certificate, had made Mickey read it because Jamie and Iggy were shaking too hard to even look at the damn thing. He wanted to hear her speak, to hear her say something other than the half-hearted goodbye that they’d gotten when she left that day but what came out of his mouth didn’t match up with his thoughts.

“Get the fuck out!”

His mother’s eyes narrowed as she stood. “Mihailo…”

“Don’t fucking call me that, my name’s Mickey,” he snarled as he took a step forward and he didn’t even notice that the bat had fallen to the floor until he clenched his fingers into a fist. “You don’t get to fucking say that, you don’t just waltz back up in here like nothing happened. We mourned, we grieved because you were gone and you weren’t even dead? You just fucking left us. You fucking left us with _him_!”

Mickey was so close now that he could see the hints of grey in his mother’s eyes, smell her perfume and it made him want to punch her in the face just on general principle.

“You think I left you of my own free will?!” she snapped, her tone cold like it had always been when she spoke to Terry. “I spent ten years in prison because of you. I gave up my freedom because it was either that or you’d all be dead!”

“Maybe we would have been better off…”

The words were barely out of Mickey’s mouth when his mother’s hand came flying at his face.

The force of the slap made his ears ring and he could taste iron in his mouth. For a second Mickey just blinked to clear his vision but in the next moment he was lunging at her. He’d never put his hands on his mother, had never truly considered it but this bitch wasn’t his fucking mother, she’d lost the right to call herself that when she’d left.

Before he could touch her skin, there were arms around him, hauling him back and Mickey fought like a wild thing until the person tossed him aside.

It was only then that he realized that it was Jamie, that Mandy was standing there watching them like her life was breaking apart in front of her.

“Calm the fuck down,” Jamie growled and Mickey glowered at him but took a step back all the same.

When their mother took a step towards him, Mickey spun on his heels and marched through the door, ignoring the others until he was too far away to hear his mother screaming his name because Mickey Milkovich didn’t have a mother anymore, no matter what that bitch back there thought.

*O*

Mickey knew that going to the dugout was a stupid idea because there were always kids hanging around but that’s where his feet led him.

Climbing onto the stands he leaned back and stared out at the field. His ribs still ached like a bitch and he knew that his face was a mess but he’d been worse. Like fuck he was going back to that house until Sonja fucked off to whether the hell she’d come from.

Jesus fucking Christ, it was like the universe liked to fuck with him just for the sake of it.

He’d loved his Ma like he’d never loved anyone else, not even Mandy. She’d been the only one willing to stand up for him when he didn’t know how to do it for himself. She hadn’t let Terry fuck with her either and Mickey was pretty sure that if Terry had been afraid of anyone it would’ve been his mother. Mickey had looked up to her, wanted to be like her…and then she’d left.

He remembered the sad smile that she’d shot their way as she followed Terry out the door, he’d kept the image in his head for years because after Terry burned all her shit, the memory of that smile was the last thing of hers that Mickey had.

But now she was back and Mickey didn’t know that hating someone could make him physically sick until he saw her face.

The sound of boots on the board below made Mickey open eyes that he hadn’t even realized that he’d closed in the first place.

There was a kid down there, a redhead but he wasn’t looking at Mickey. Instead the kid was staring out at the field like Mickey had been doing just a few moments before.

Leaning his head to the side Mickey squinted as he tried to make out the kid’s features, only to roll his eyes when he realized that it was one of the Gallaghers, Lip’s little brother. Mickey was pretty sure that his name started with an ‘A’ or ‘I’ or something. There were so many Gallaghers that it was hard to keep shit straight.

“The fuck you doing out here?”

The kid twisted his head at the sound of Mickey’s voice, his gaze roaming the stands until he found where Mickey was sitting, then he shrugged.

“Needed some space,” he responded and Mickey snorted because with the amount of siblings that the kid had he might as well wish for the fucking stars.

“Why’re you out here?”

Usually the question would have rankled but there was nothing but curiosity on the kid’s face as he leaned against the rails so that he was fully facing Mickey.

“My house's haunted,” Mickey shot back because freaked out or not, he was still a fucking smartass.

The kid gaped at him, “What seriously?!”

Mickey snickered at the expression on the redhead’s face. “Nah, my Ma’s back, apparently the bitch wasn’t as dead as we thought.”

The kid frowned. “That’s Mandy’s mom right?”

“How the hell do you know Mandy?”

“We’re in the same class,” he responded with a shrug. “I don’t think she even notices me, though.”

Mickey’s brow hiked at that even as he tensed because Mandy had enough fuckups in her life, the last thing she needed was a Gallagher, “What you looking to bang my sister?”

The kid snorted before shaking his head and the reaction made Mickey’s eyes narrow.

“You think you’re too good for her, Red?” he demanded but the smile on the kid’s face had his temper cooling before it truly had a chance to ignite. It was a soft thing like he’d seen on Mandy’s face when he gave her the first doll she’d ever owned. The thing had been busted up a few days later but Mickey hadn’t forgotten her smile.

“She’s not my type but I’ve always wanted to be friends with her, she’s pretty badass, you know?” the redhead mused and Mickey smirked because of course Mandy was a badass, she was a Milkovich after all.

There was a long moment of silence and Mickey wondered if the kid was going to leave. Funny enough he really didn’t feel like being alone anymore even though that was why he’d come out here in the first place.

“My mom’s back too, not that we call her mom or anything. Most of the time I just call her Monica because she’s around so little that it’s like she’s a stranger.”

The kid paused and glanced back out at the field.

“Fiona says it’s because Monica’s sick, she’s bipolar…”

“Bi-what?” Mickey interrupted because what the ever loving fuck was that?

“She’s got mood swings, when she’s good she’ll be up for days and do all sorts of shit but when she’s bad…” the kid shrugged and Mickey wanted to know what happened when this Monica chick was bad but he also didn’t want to know so he did the next best thing…he changed the topic.

“So what’s your name? Or am I gonna have to keep calling you kid in my head?”

The redhead glanced at him, a sly smile twisting his lips. “That depends do I get a free no ass kicking day if I tell you?”

“Fuck you, is what you’ll get,” Mickey retorted with a snort and the side of the kid’s mouth ticked up like Mickey had said something funny as fuck instead of his usual insult.

“Come on, I already know your name so it won’t be an equal trade unless you give me something” the kid cajoled as he climbed the stairs stopping a bench below, close enough for Mickey to see the freckles barely hidden by his sleeves but too far for him to reach. Mickey wasn’t stupid, that shit wasn’t a coincidence, though with a father like Frank he figured the kid probably knew all about staying out of the range of danger.

Mickey glared at him but when the kid didn’t flinch he scoffed. “Whatever, it ain’t like I was thinking of kicking your ass until you mentioned it.”

The kid shrugged but he was grinning like an idiot so Mickey figured that he felt pretty proud of himself.

“My name’s Ian, Ian Gallagher.”

“Figured out the Gallagher bit already,” Mickey admitted and Ian nodded like he’d expected that. He probably had because there was hardly anybody in Southside who didn’t know the Gallagher clan.

“So how long are you going to stay out here?” Ian asked and Mickey frowned at him, partially out of habit but mostly because he didn’t like people all up in his business.

The redhead held out his hands like he knew what Mickey was thinking. “I’m not being nosy, it’s just…I’ve got somewhere to be in a bit and I was wondering….” he trailed off and Mickey gestured for him to keep talking. “You could come with if you aren’t doing anything, I guess?”

“You really want people to see you with a Milkovich?” Mickey asked, not because he cared but he figured that the kid’s answer would give him time to decide whether to move his ass or not.

Ian puffed up like a cartoon rooster and both Mickey’s brows hiked at the reaction. “Anybody who has a problem with it can go fuck themselves. I already said I wanted to be friends with Mandy, didn’t I? Why the hell would I care about what anyone thought?”

Mickey chuckled as he reached into his pocket to grab a cigarette. Lighting it, he inhaled, taking a long drag before exhaling. It was only when the smoke was curling in front of his face that he glanced down at Ian.

“Alright, tough guy, where’s it you’re headed?”

Ian grinned again and Mickey didn’t miss the way that the kid seemed to hop from emotion to emotion.

“They’ve got a vacancy at the Kash and Grab. I figured I’d give it a go.”

Mickey nodded, he understood the need for money in a family as big as the Gallaghers. Standing he brushed the ash off his jeans, going with Ian at least meant that he didn’t have to go home to Sonja. Glancing down he frowned at Ian, the redhead was staring at him with an expression on his face that Mickey couldn’t place.

“We doing this or not?”

Ian scrambled to his feet, “Yeah, we’re doing this,” he replied and Mickey followed him down the stairs and off the stands.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ian shrugged. “You’re either tough or dead in this neighbourhood and seeing as I’m not six feet under…” he trailed off and Mickey snorted but didn’t call the kid on it because Ian was right. Southside didn’t breed weakness, hell even the people who seemed like they’d never preach violence wouldn’t hesitate to put a bullet in someone’s skull if they thought it’d mean they could live for another day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still unbeta'd so all mistakes are my own. Posting will be on Mondays and Thursdays.

*O*

Mickey could’ve told Gallagher that he’d get the job the second they walked into the store. It didn’t take a genius to see that Kash and his wife weren’t as happy as they were trying to appear. If Mickey was gonna guess why, he’d put it down to the way that the man’s eyes kept following almost every man that walked through the door.

When Kash’s eyes met his Mickey bared his teeth at him in a sad parody of a smile and the way that the man scuttled away made him want to laugh.

It wasn’t like Mickey was screaming his love of cock from the rooftops but he wasn’t stupid enough to get married to a woman either.

What Mickey hadn’t expected was Linda’s eyes to turn on him when she was done grilling Ian.

Mickey and his brothers had been inside the store before and he was pretty damn sure that Linda had seen Iggy’s five finger discount strategy so he wasn’t really paying attention when the woman stopped in front of him. At worst he figured that she’d bring it up, at best she was trying to be intimidating which was working about as well as a kitten growling at a pit bull.

The only reason why Mickey hadn’t told her to get the fuck out of his face was because he’d heard the woman mention her kids and any mother willing to stick around in this shit hole was somebody worthy of respect….not that Mickey was going to tell her that shit.

“How about you? Looking for a job as well?”

Mickey frowned; catching sight of Ian’s panicked gestures out of the corner of his eye. “I ain’t the nine to five type,” he responded finally, eyeing Linda’s shrewd grin.

“That’s good, I don’t need you here nine to five, just a couple hours in the morning to deal with the hobos and in the evenings after school. These little criminals keep stealing things and my husband doesn’t seem to understand that a shop can’t be run without goods.”

Mickey’s eyes flickered to Kash’s face, taking in the grimace present there and that more than anything made up his mind. The fact that he’d have somewhere to be that wasn’t in the same house with Sonja was an added bonus because Mickey wasn’t stupid enough to believe that she’d just fuck off before he got back.

“What about my business?” Mickey inquired, directing the question at Linda but keeping his eyes on Kash.

“I know about your family _business_ ,” The annoyance in the woman’s tone made Mickey smirk because he’d expected disgust. “You don’t do it in front of my kids and if you get in trouble with the police you’re on your own,” she told him, pausing as she glanced at where Gallagher was watching the entire thing. “Also you’ll be working with Ian so no fighting or you’re both fired.”

Like Mickey gave a fuck about getting fired from a job that he hadn’t even asked for but Gallagher’s look said that he gave more fucks than necessary so Mickey shrugged.

“Whatever, as long as I get paid and you ain’t got an issue with my stuff,”

Linda stared at him for another moment before nodding and shuffling back to where Kash was watching Mickey warily.

“I can’t believe that you got the job,” Ian whispered once he was close enough and Mickey shot him a look because it was like everybody in this fucking store had forgotten that he hadn’t come here looking for a job, in the first place.

Shoving the door open, Mickey stepped outside, inhaling the crisp air. The kid was probably going to head home now which meant that he’d have to find somewhere else to be for a few hours until he could slip home when everyone was asleep.

“So what are you going to do now?”

Ian’s voice snapped Mickey from his thoughts and this time he didn’t take offence, he just shrugged because he actually didn’t know what the fuck he _was_ going to do. He sure as hell wasn’t going back home, he knew that much.

Mickey was so distracted by his own thoughts that he didn’t realize that Ian was still talking until he felt the redhead’s gaze burning into him.

“The fuck are you staring at me for?”

Ian rolled his eyes and Mickey was tempted to punch the kid just because but he’d given Ian his word and a Milkovich never went back on their word, at least Mickey and his siblings didn’t…he couldn’t say the same about Terry.

“I said,” the kid started, stressing the words like Mickey was causing him undue pain and not just saving him from some. “…you could hang with me for a bit. I’m on Monica duty today which means I’m going to have to stay with her so she doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“She’s a grownass woman, what’s she going to do, throw a party and trash your shit?” Mickey scoffed.

The words were barely out of his mouth when Ian’s expression shuttered, the curve of his smile flattening as he pressed his lips together. “She could try and kill herself again,” he responded flatly and Mickey barely resisted the urge to swipe his hand across his face because he’d walked straight into that one. “If you don’t wanna come it’s cool, I just figured since you weren’t doing anything…” Ian continued as he turned away and Mickey knew the best thing to do was let the kid walk but something made him tell Ian to wait.

“Look, you don’t know shit about me, kid. The last thing you need is me hanging around….”

“Your name’s Mickey Milkovich, you’re in the same grade as my brother Lip, who you’ve beaten up more than once….” Mickey cocked his brow as Ian ticked off his fingers. “People say you’re a thug and that’s pretty much the truth but Mandy thinks you’re her best brother… don’t tell her I said that because I wasn’t supposed overhear her. Plus I think I could take you in a fight so I don’t see what I’m supposed to be afraid of, it’s not like our family’s got much of a reputation to wreck.”

Mickey smirked at the kid but Ian just met his gaze steadily. “A real tough guy, huh?”

Ian shrugged. “You’re either tough or dead in this neighbourhood and seeing as I’m not six feet under…” he trailed off and Mickey snorted but didn’t call the kid on it because Ian was right. Southside didn’t breed weakness, hell even the people who seemed like they’d never preach violence wouldn’t hesitate to put a bullet in someone’s skull if they thought it’d mean they could live for another day.

“Alright, tough guy, I’ll hang but don’t think that means I won’t be kicking your ass if you step out of line.”

Ian grinned at him. “Cool, look, Monica doesn’t really respond to anything so don’t freak out alright?” it was phrased as a question but Mickey could pretty much taste the iron under the words and he nodded because he knew all about protecting family even if they didn’t ask for it…hell, especially when they didn’t ask for it. “And Mickey, you need a shrink if you think I can’t whoop your ass,”

Mickey didn’t respond to that but the shove that he gave the kid had Gallagher flailing as he tried to not fall into the busy street.

*O*

The Gallagher house wasn’t anything new to Mickey, though he’d never actually been inside before. None of the kids running through the place seemed to notice him and other than a single look form Lip who was lounging on the sofa, Mickey followed the redhead undisturbed.

He’d expected the place to be dirtier considering how many people actually lived there but it wasn’t. It wasn’t Northside clean but it wasn’t dirty like his house either. The place was lived in, he could see the signs of all of its occupants except Frank but Mickey figured that wasn’t too shocking seeing as most of the time Frank was too busy passing out in a ditch somewhere to find his way home.

Mickey could remember a time when his house had been kind of like this place but that was before Sonja had up and left.

“So this is Monica’s room, well not really her room because she’s hardly here but this is where she’s staying for now,” Ian told him as he shoved the door open and Mickey wrinkled his nose at the stale air that rushed out before following Ian into the dark room.

There was a blonde woman huddled on the single bed, her head barely visible above the sheets wrapped around her and Mickey figured that this was Monica.

Ian perched at the edge of the bed, one hand reaching out to untangle the mess of the woman’s hair.

“Hey, Monica, I brought someone with me today so if you feel like talking just let me know, alright?”

Ian’s voice was soft in a way that Mickey hadn’t expected and despite the stony look on the kid’s face his pain was pretty obvious so Mickey turned away because you didn’t just stare at someone’s weakness, not unless that person was your enemy.

Somewhere below them a cop car went screaming past and Mickey wondered idly if it was going to pick up someone he knew.

“Right, she’s not getting up.” Ian said and the only thing that kept Mickey from flinching was the fact that Terry had beaten the reaction out of him a long time ago.

Glancing at the redhead, Mickey nodded before pulling out a cigarette. When Gallagher just shoved the window open, he lit up because the kid didn’t seem to have a problem with him smoking.

“So what are you going to do about your mom?”

The question was blunt, no pity or concern but he figured that Ian was used to mothers not being what they were supposed to be, it’d probably take a helluva lot more than returning from the dead to faze the kid.

“Dunno, if the bitch is smart she’ll be gone before I get back,” he murmured before taking a drag of his cigarette.

“Doesn’t sound like you think she’s going to be gone,” Ian pointed out and Mickey shrugged because Sonja was stubborn as fuck.

“She’ll probably con Mandy and Jamie into believing her sob story,” Mickey growled as he tugged at his hair with his free hand. “You’d think she’d have fucking stayed dead.”

“Where’s she been?”

The question barely registered when Mickey was responding, telling Ian the whole sordid thing and wasn’t that a fucking joke? A Milkovich spilling his guts to a Gallagher, Terry would have a freaking heart attack if he could see Mickey now.

Ian was quiet for a long time and when Mickey glanced at him he found the kid staring at the woman on the bed.

“I don’t know your mom but if I were you, I’d at least hear her out. I mean you said yourself why would she come back if she wasn’t telling the truth?”

Mickey sighed, rubbing a hand across his face. “Who the fuck knows? Maybe she thought she could scam some money before she went on the run again?”

Ian nodded like that made perfect sense and Mickey could see how Ian would agree with that especially with Frank as a father.

“If it comes to it, I could sleep rough for a few weeks but that means leaving her in the house with Mandy and that shit ain’t gonna happen,” Mickey paused to take another drag of his cigarette while he considered the situation.

“But say she’s telling the truth, if you kick her out she’s not gonna be safe,” Ian pointed out and Mickey snorted because Gallagher clearly didn’t know his Ma. Anybody stupid enough to go after her would most likely end up gutted. Still he could get where Gallagher was coming from…he didn’t like that line of reasoning but he understood it. There was no way that Mandy was going to let him just kick their Ma to the curb, hell the more he thought about it, the less he wanted to do it despite the fact that Sonja had put her hands on him.

It wasn’t like it was the first time he’d been roughed up by a parent.

“So what the fuck do you suggest?” Mickey asked and Gallagher shrugged, his eyes flickering back to where Monica was lying on the bed and for a moment Mickey wondered what he would’ve done if Sonja was like Monica.

“Fiona’s always telling us not to make decisions when we’re pissed off because it doesn’t end well for anyone,” Ian responded with a shrug. “It’s not like anybody’s gonna kick you out of here.”

“Lip might try,” Mickey pointed out even though he was pretty damn sure that Lip was still scared shitless of him but you never know, the Gallaghers were fucking crazy after all.

“Lip’s trying to get Karen back, he’s not going to do anything that’ll get his face messed up,” Ian chuckled. “He needs his good looks because his mouth usually runs people off or gets his ass kicked.”

Mickey had to agree with that one because as long as Lip was quiet he was pretty alright. The sad thing was Lip seemed genuinely incapable of shutting up.

There was also what Ian wasn’t saying. “So you want me to hang around?”

The redhead shrugged as he leaned against the windowsill. “You _were_ kind of right when you said I don’t really know you but I know fucked up parents. If giving you somewhere to stay means you won’t do something you’ll regret then yeah, I want you to hang out here.”

“Shit, Red, you’re pretty damn smart for a kid,” Mickey admitted, holding out what was left of his smoke and when Ian accepted Mickey figured the kid was pretty alright.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mickey watched Ian inhale slowly before exhaling like a pro, none of that chocking shit that he usually saw when kids were trying to act cool.

“You learn to be smart pretty quick when you’ve got CPS sniffing around just waiting to haul your family off to a home or some shit,” Ian admitted as he handed the cigarette back to Mickey. “I’ll tell Fiona that you’re staying and get you a blanket or something. You can bunk on the floor with me tonight or you can try your chances sleeping in the same room as Lip…”

The look that Mickey shot Ian had the redhead raising his hands in surrender. “Just a suggestion,” he laughed as his attention returned to the streets beneath them.

“Hey Gallagher,” Mickey started, waiting until Ian glanced at him. “Why are you doing all this shit?”

Ian shrugged, “What can I say? I kinda like you Mickey.”

“Man, why did you have to start with that queer shit?” Mickey growled but Ian was staring at him with that unreadable expression again and for some reason it made something dark curl in Mickey’s gut.

To get rid of the feeling Mickey flicked his cigarette out the window, watching as it spiralled down to the pavement below.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Just lead me to the damn coffee, Firecrotch,” he muttered, smirking when Ian gaped at him. “What, the carpets don’t match the drapes?”
> 
> Ian’s face flushed almost as red as his hair and Mickey snickered to himself because that pretty much answered that question.
> 
> He was pretty sure that he could blame his lack of sleep for what he’d said but Mickey wasn’t blind, Gallagher was good looking if a bit scrawny and right now Mickey needed all the distraction he could get. Plus there was no way that Ian was going to call him on it, so Mickey’s closet door was fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd, still looking for one, so all mistakes are my own. Posting will be on Mondays and Thursdays.

The one thing Mickey hated more than lack of sleep and stupid people was waking up early which was why he growled when someone started shaking him just when he’d finally settled in.

When the shaking didn’t stop he opened one eye to glower at the fuckhead who’d decided to be a human alarm clock.

The first thing that registered was a shock of red so blinding that Mickey almost hauled the blanket back up but the glare that Gallagher settled on him said that that shit wasn’t going to go down well.

“Get the fuck up, Mickey, we’ve got work in an hour,” the kid whispered and Mickey groaned because this shit right here was why he’d never held down a job.

“Fucking hell, Gallagher, just tell the crazy bitch that I quit.”

“Mickey, I swear to God if you don’t get up…” the kid trailed off and Mickey sighed because if Ian was anything like Mandy he could kiss the rest of his sleep goodbye.

Sitting up he sneered at the kid until he noticed the cup of jello in his hands.

Ian followed his gaze and smirked. “Your sister talks about you a lot when she thinks people aren’t paying attention,” he offered up as he held out the cup and Mickey wasn’t ashamed of how quickly he grabbed the thing.

“This job had better pay me enough for this shit,” Mickey groused once the jello was gone.

Ian just grinned as Mickey climbed to his feet. “Fiona’s got coffee on, no breakfast but I figured we could grab something on our way to school.”

Mickey snorted but he didn’t mention the fact that he hadn’t been to school in fuck knows how long and he sure as hell wasn’t planning on changing that any time soon.

“Just lead me to the damn coffee, Firecrotch,” he muttered, smirking when Ian gaped at him. “What, the carpets don’t match the drapes?”

Ian’s face flushed almost as red as his hair and Mickey snickered to himself because that pretty much answered that question.

He was pretty sure that he could blame his lack of sleep for what he’d said but Mickey wasn’t blind, Gallagher was good looking if a bit scrawny and right now Mickey needed all the distraction he could get. Plus there was no way that Ian was going to call him on it, so Mickey’s closet door was fine.

Ian glared at him before turning to stomp down the stairs and Mickey followed, his grin still stretched across his face because fucking with Gallagher was pretty damn fun.

*O*

Thankfully the kitchen was empty when they got downstairs and Mickey hardly had time to drink his coffee before Ian was nagging him to take a shower. Mickey would’ve told him to fuck off but the kid had puppy eyes that put Mandy’s to shame, plus he’d apparently gotten his sister to do Mickey’s laundry and Mickey wasn’t stupid enough to not accept the gesture of kindness.

His shower wasn’t a long one but he did feel awake enough to deal with a fraction of the bullshit that he’d figured the day would bring.

By the time he was dressed and ready, Ian was pretty much bursting out his skin. Mickey snickered as the kid tore past him, waiting impatiently when Mickey followed at a much slower pace.

*O*

The trip to the Kash and Grab was uneventful though it did give Mickey the time to think over some things, mainly what to do about Sonja.

He didn’t trust the woman, didn’t think he’d ever trust her again but she was blood and Mickey never turned his back on blood. Plus Mandy needed some sort of a female influence because Mickey was getting sick and tired of beating people up for spreading rumours about his baby sister.

Mandy wasn’t the fucking virgin Mary, he knew that much but he’d be damned before he let her turn into some two bit skank.

Then there were his brothers.

Mickey could remember a time when they hadn’t been such fuckups and sadly that time had been before they thought Sonja was dead.

All in all it looked like keeping his Ma around was the best way to keep the peace. Sonja could keep an eye on shit and Mickey would keep bringing the cash in. As long as the woman stayed out of his way they’d be fine.

There was only one more problem and that was Terry.

Despite what everyone thought Mickey wasn’t stupid and he could put two and two together as easily as anyone else. The fact that Sonja had left with Terry before she supposedly died, added to Terry’s sudden production of her death certificate probably meant that the man had been in on it and if that was the case Mickey couldn’t see Terry being happy about Sonja being back.

“Fuck me!” Mickey snarled, ignoring the curious glances he got from his outburst. Thankfully Gallagher didn’t react and Mickey was starting to think that nothing fazed the kid which was a good thing, especially if he was going to keep hanging around.

The Kash and Grab was already open when they got there and Mickey was starting to think this whole job shit was a bad idea.

“So what am I supposed to do?” he asked after Linda finished showing them around the backroom while Kash manned the tills.

“You’re both in charge of packing things out and taking delivery,” she responded. “I only need one cashier but you’re both going to learn how to use the tills and if anything goes missing…”

“Hey, you know where I live,” Mickey cut in with a smirk that had Ian glaring at him.

“Nothing’s going to go missing,” Ian told Linda and the woman just cocked a brow at him. “If it does you’d have to fire both of us and that means you’d have to find people willing to get up at five in the morning and trek through our neighbourhood to get here. We’re not stupid, we want this job…”

“Speak for yourself,” Mickey added sotto voce but Ian just ignored him.

“And we’re _both_ going to keep everything above board,” he finished.

Mickey just shrugged when Linda glanced at him cause he wasn’t stupid, he’d need the extra money with Sonja around plus the kid was willing to stick up for him and Mickey could respect that. He wasn’t going to do anything to make a liar out of the redhead…well not unless he felt like it.

Linda nodded minutely. “Good, well I need one person on the tills and one on the doors.”

“I can scare a few chuckleheads so I’ll take the door,” Mickey piped up before Gallagher could even think of opening his mouth. There was no way that Mickey was getting stuck behind a counter when he could be scaring the fuck out of people and get paid for it.

He grinned at Ian when the kid shot him a warning look but Linda just smirked.

“I just want them to stop stealing not dead,” she warned and Mickey eyed her for a second.

“Ain’t been to prison yet, have I?” he retorted because seriously like he was going to kill someone over a snickers.

“That just means you know how to clean up a crime scene,” Linda replied and alright she had him there that didn’t mean Mickey was gonna admit shit.

“So do we at least get employee’s discount or am I going to have to start shaking down the hobos?”

Linda rolled her eyes and raised her hands, Mickey followed her gaze to the ceiling before Ian’s snicker of amusement made him refocus because Linda was all sorts of crazy, the last thing the bitch needed was encouragement.

“Do whatever you want just don’t break anything in my store and you don’t get employee’s discount if you only work part-time…”

Mickey opened his mouth to protest but Linda was talking again.

“But if you get here before six then I might have breakfast ready,” she finished on a softer note despite the scowl on her face.

“Linda, we’re already paying him,” Kash protested.

Mickey just flipped him off which made Linda grin, though she turned her head away so that her husband couldn’t see it.

“You got a problem with me getting fed?” Mickey called back and the way that Kash flinched back behind the counter was answer enough. “Yeah that’s what I thought,” Mickey muttered under his breath as he followed Linda back into the storeroom.

He could do four hours of work a day as long as he had motivators like food and money.

Mickey wasn’t even going to think about the point that Ian’s company was also an influencing factor in the whole thing.

*O*

Mickey grimaced as he glanced at the clock, he had another hour to go and he already wanted to strangle someone…preferably Kash but the little pussy had decided to take a long break as soon as Linda left.

It wouldn’t have been as bad if they weren’t new and there’d been a few customers who tried to get more than what they were paying for but after Mickey introduced the last one’s face to the counter things had been running a lot smoother. It still didn’t mean that Mickey was enjoying himself.

“Why the fuck did you want to work in this shithole?” he demanded when their last customer shuffled out of the store, eyeing Mickey warily.

“I already told you, I need the money,” Gallagher responded and Mickey watched as the kid reached into the backpack he’d brought with him and hauled out a text book. “Plus I figured I could get some school work done when it gets quiet.”

“What, you tryin’ to be smarter than Lip?” Mickey inquired, ducking his head so he could see the title of the book but as soon as he saw the word ‘geometry’ he rolled his eyes and resettled on his perch. He was good at math, had to be or he’d have lost them money already but he didn’t see the sense in fucked up stuff like geometry or even worse algebra.

“I’m gonna try and get into West Point,” Ian responded with a shrug.

Mickey frowned at him. “Ain’t that military school?”

Ian nodded, “I’m already in the ROTC, West Point is just the next step, you know?”

Mickey rolled his eyes because as far as he was concerned being in this neighbourhood was already like living in a fucking war zone, he couldn’t figure out why the hell the kid would want to train just to get shot at when he could do it right here.

“Why does everybody keep making that face when I tell them that?” Ian groused and Mickey snorted.

“What face?”

“The one that you just did, you pretty much said I was a dumbass without saying anything,”

“If you just figured out that I think you’re a dumbass, you’re fucking slow,” Mickey murmured, flipping Ian the bird when the redhead glared at him.

“I just want to do something with my life, you know? It’s not like there’s shit to do around here other than try to not get killed,” Ian groused.

Mickey glanced at the kid, taking in the bitter twist of his lips and rolled his eyes skyward because Ian had more mood swings than Mandy did when she was on the rag.

“If you wanna get paid to get shot at, then do it. Who the fuck around here’s gonna judge you for it?”

Ian eyed him for a second but when he realized that Mickey was serious he grinned. “It’s just an idea, I guess. It’s not like I think I’m actually gonna get in.”

Mickey wrinkled his nose. “If you don’t get in then go fucking enlist, you can’t miss the big ass station that they’ve got just waiting for you jarheads to line up and sign your life away,” Mickey told him, watching the kid who’d just stepped into the store. Part of Mickey hoped the little punk tried to steal something. “What I don’t get is why you’ve got to study to hold a gun?”

“You’ve got to know your shit, if you don’t want to end up fucking up,” Ian responded and Mickey shrugged. As far as he was concerned all he needed to know was how to shoot straight and knock people out…like he was thinking of doing right now.

“Oi, fucktard, you wanna see if you can get out the door with all that shit in your pockets before or after I break your fingers?” Mickey called to the teen who had been steadily edging his way towards the door.

The kid started, glancing nervously from Mickey to Ian who was watching the entire thing with a tiny grin.

“He’s not joking, we’ve been up since six, he will fuck your shit up,” the redhead responded and the kid backed up, emptying his pockets before tearing past Mickey as he fled the store.

“Who the fuck is raising these little shitheads?” Mickey grumbled to himself, ignoring the look that Ian shot his way because Mickey knew he wasn’t a saint that didn’t mean he couldn’t judge other people.

Before Ian could say anything the bell over the door jangled as Linda walked into the store. She paused for a second eyeing the two of them.

“Isn’t Kash supposed to be watching you two?”

Ian shrugged but Mickey wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to start something.

“Guess he figured he could stop as soon as you left,” he muttered, keeping his voice just loud enough for to hear while making it seem like he’d been trying to do the exact opposite.

“What?!” Linda spat and Gallagher favoured the woman with a wide eyed look and a shrug that Mickey couldn’t have planned better if he’d had the time.

Linda nodded to herself. “You two can go, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“You sure?” Ian asked even though Mickey was already halfway to the door but Linda just nodded and Mickey was out of the store before she could change her mind.

*O*

Mickey managed to ditch Gallagher with some sob story about making up with his Ma though the look on the kid’s face said he knew exactly what Mickey was doing but he didn’t call him on his shit and Mickey was glad for that mercy. He wasn’t sure how Ian’s family dealt with the little fucker because the kid was good at getting under the skin, hell he was already throwing Mickey off his game and he’d only known the little bastard for a day.

The walk back home wasn’t as bad as the one to work. Mickey’s head was pretty damn clear and as long as nobody got up in his face he figured he could count it as a good day.

Jamie was on the porch when he reached their house, a half-burnt cigarette in one hand and a mug that Mickey had never seen in the other.

Unlike Gallagher, Jamie knew better than to ask about Mickey’s whereabouts.

“You’re late,” his brother greeted and Mickey shrugged.

“Got a job down at the Kash and Grab. Figured the shit would bring in some extra cash if Sonja’s planning on sticking around,” he responded. Jamie cocked his head and stared at him for a long moment.

“She’s gonna fuck you up if you keep calling her that,” he warned and while Mickey believed him, he just snorted.

“The bitch already put her hands on me, it’s not like she can do much worse.”

The bitterness in his tone hadn’t been his intention and he could see that it had registered from the way that Jamie’s shoulders tensed.

Mickey’s fingers were already curling into fists even though Jamie had never made a habit of going after him but it wasn’t exactly a character trait that Mickey could count on so he was always on his guard because out of all his brothers Jamie was the one most able to fuck his shit up.

Jamie took a drag of his cigarette before holding it out to Mickey, who hesitated before accepting the peace offering.

“Look, you were too young to know about some of the shit that went on up in here, alright?” Jamie started and Mickey didn’t roll his eyes but it was a close thing. “Whatever fucked up shit she’s done, she’s still our Ma. You gonna tell me that you’d turn your back on her?”

“I didn’t fucking say that shit, alright?” Mickey snapped, all but shoving Jamie’s cigarette back at him. “Look, we doing that run or not?”

Jamie shrugged. “Already done it.”

Mickey’s eyes narrowed but Jamie continued before he could get a word in. “Ma wanted to see the neighbourhood.”

“So you brought her on a fucking run?” Mickey snarled. Jamie just grinned at his anger and it made Mickey want to deck the fucker because Mickey wasn’t the one who was supposed to be reminding people to be safe.

“She scared the fuck out of Marino when she pulled her gun on him,” he responded and just like that Mickey deflated because he kept forgetting that his mother was just as fucked up as they were.

“I don’t even fucking wanna know,” he muttered as he stretched. “I’m going to bed.”

Jamie snorted like that was the funny joke he’d heard all morning but Mickey didn’t stop to ask what was so fucking funny, he just shoved the door open and marched inside, almost running straight into Mandy.

“Watch it fuckface!” Mickey shouted after her as she barrelled pass him, shooting him a furious glare.

“Go tell your Ma to ‘watch it’, bitch!” she snapped back and Mickey flipped her off even as his brows furrowed in confusion because Mandy only went to school once a week and she’d already been there on Monday.

Shaking his head Mickey turned and froze when he noticed his old backpack on the sofa. “Who the fuck’s been in my room?” he shouted back at Jamie through the open door but his brother didn’t respond…the fucking pussy!

“Mihailo,”

Mickey grimaced at his Ma’s voice but didn’t turn to face her because he wasn’t ready to deal with her shit yet.

“I have been told that you are not going to school,” she continued like they were buddies and Mickey snorted.

“Yeah, Terry wasn’t big on educating the son of a _kurva_ ,”

The word rolled off Mickey’s tongue despite the fact that he hadn’t used the language aloud in years. Terry hadn’t been big on Sonja’s reluctance to let go of her motherland and he’d made sure that they all understood what would happen if he caught any of them using what their Ma saw as their language.

“Terry would not be seeing as his mother was a kurva herself,” Sonja responded lightly though when Mickey looked at her face he could see that his words had hurt her and it made him smile because she’d never understand how much she’d fucked them all up with her lies.

“That does not mean you are staying at home and becoming like him,” Sonja added and Mickey cocked a brow at her smug expression, barely noticing Jamie as his brother brushed past him to take a seat on the sofa.

“I ain’t going anywhere,” Mickey growled but his mother’s expression was so smug that he narrowed his eyes when she stepped closer.

“Oh you will be going to school. You are not at age of majority and this country; it is very concerned about things like that….” Sonja taunted and a cold shiver worked its way up Mickey’s spine when she smiled at him. “It would be bad if the government knew that my little truant of a dijete is not listening to his mother when she begs him to get an education.”

“Fucking seriously? You wouldn’t pull that shit,” Mickey shot back but Sonja didn’t respond, she just dropped an envelope on top of his backpack and wandered off…hopefully back to whatever hellhole she’d crawled out of.

“She’s not bluffing,” Jamie told him as he picked up the envelope. “Me and Mandy read it already. She’s got some fucked up deal with CPS and my parole officer. Don’t know what she’s giving them but whatever the fuck it is, it’s the only thing keeping any of our asses here.”

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Mickey grimaced, he wasn’t even gonna read the damn thing. Fuck the fucking bitch to hell! Who the fuck did she think she was, just waltzing in and messing up their lives?!

“So you going to school?” Jamie asked and Mickey suddenly hated his brother for being two years older than him.

“I’m going but tell that crazy bitch that this shit ain’t over!” Mickey spat.

Jamie scoffed. “Mandy said the same thing last night.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Nobody said shit about hiding, it don’t mean people need to go around advertising something that could get them gutted,” Mickey responded and it took him a minute to realize what he’d said but when he did all of his muscles locked.
> 
> Ian wasn’t fucking stupid and there was no way that he could’ve taken Mickey’s words for anything other than what they were…a fucking confession. A confession that Mickey hadn’t even realised that he’d given until it was too late.

“If I kill Ma, will you be my alibi?”

Mickey snorted as he glared out at the field; not even glancing over when Mandy stole his cigarette right out of his mouth because she was a little bitch who couldn’t wait.

“I’ll even hold the fucking gun,” Mickey responded, flicking some stray ash off his jeans. He’d told Sonja he’d go to school; he hadn’t said shit about staying in class. “What’d she get you with?” he asked, stealing his cigarette back before Mandy ended up swallowing the damn thing.

“Some age of majority bullshit,” Mandy muttered, “I didn’t even know what the shit meant until she showed me that letter. She’s fucked in the head if she thinks I’m coming to this shithole every day.”

“You gonna cry on her until she changes her mind?” Mickey taunted.

“Fuck off, I don’t see you doing shit to stop her. She’s about two steps away from putting us on lockdown” Mandy shot back but Mickey just smirked because at least he had a legitimate reason to be out of the house if Sonja started getting nosy. “Jamie grassed me up and told her that I had a boyfriend and you know what she said? ‘Bring him over, I will cook him soup then I will cut off his cock and feed it to him inch by inch,’ What kind of mother says shit like that…Mickey stop fucking laughing!”

Despite Mandy’s words and a vicious punch to the shoulder that reminded Mickey that he wasn’t fully healed up he couldn’t stop laughing because that shit was funny. It was even funnier when he thought about the fact that Sonja would actually do it if given half of a chance.

“The fuck you complaining to me about shit for? She’s your Ma,” Mickey finally chocked out, wiping tears from his eyes as he took another long drag of his smoke.

“She’s your Ma too, shithead and she’s not just fucking up my life. She’s even going up to see about getting Tony and Iggy out on bail plus she told Jamie to tell Joey to be home before they got back or else. She’s fucking crazy, it’s like she wants us to be some fucked up version of the Brady Bunch.”

Mickey rolled his eyes because Sonja didn’t even know what the fuck a Brady Bunch was…Mickey wasn’t even sure why _he_ knew what a fucking Brady Bunch was.

“What do you think we should do?” Mandy demanded as she wound down and Mickey shrugged.

“Don’t know about you but I’m gonna be staying as far away from Sonja’s crazy as I can get,” he responded.

If Sonja was gonna start pulling out the big guns this early in the game Mickey didn’t want to be around to see what else she had planned.

*O*

Mickey was early…he pretty much expected the skies to open up or some shit because he’d never been early to anything but after campus security came sniffing around he’d booked it, which gave him more time to make his way to work.

He’d stopped to shake down a few kids that owed him some cash but with his house out of bounds while Sonja was liable to be awake he didn’t really have shit to do and he figured that he could probably freak out Kash until it was his time to go on shift.

The bell over the door jangled as he stepped inside but there was no one at the till.

Mickey cocked a brow at that because apparently Linda hadn’t been joking when she said that Kash didn’t know how to run a store.

If Mickey didn’t work there he probably would have stolen a few things because passing up an opportunity like this in their neighbourhood was stupid as shit.

Tossing his backpack over the counter Mickey made his way to the store room to let them know he was here. Maybe he could get overtime pay or something?

The sounds reached him before anything else and Mickey paused at the door one brow hiked so far it was almost at his hairline because seriously?

“Oi!” Mickey slammed his hand against the door as he shouted, his lips stretching into a vicious grin when Kash leapt away from the guy who’d just been pounding his ass against the storeroom shelf.

The two of them rounded on him wide eyed and Mickey smirked as he recognized the other man as a guy he’d seen loitering around when Linda had been interviewing Ian.

Opening the door Mickey leaned against the frame while the two tried to haul their clothes back on.

“And what do we got here?” he laughed, eyeing Kash who looked like he was about two steps away from passing out. “Linda know you like it up the ass?”

“I d-d-don’t….”

“You d-d-don’t, what?” Mickey taunted. The irony of the situation hadn’t missed him but Mickey got his kicks where he could plus he didn’t like Kash so what little remorse he might have felt for ragging on the guy when he was in the same boat was buried under a whole heap of glee.

“I’ll pay you not to say anything,” Kash pleaded, his eyes wild as they glanced from Mickey to his lover who was slumped against the store room wall like he was trying to melt through the wall. “Anything you want just name it!”

Mickey opened his mouth to tell Kash what he could do with his bribe but then he thought better of it.

“This is how it’s gonna go,” Mickey started. “I want something you get it for me, nothing’s too big and nothing’s too small, you got that? You can’t afford it? Then you go find the money. If I hear an excuse, Linda gets to know all about her husband being a fag, you get me?”

Kash nodded and Mickey grinned. “Next thing you keep your hands to your fucking self in here and that goes for Red too. I see you looking at us too long and I’m gonna gut you like a fish,” Mickey snarled, he wasn’t sure why he’d included that one but he’d seen the way that Kash’s eyes lingered on Ian and Mickey wasn’t down with that shit.

“The fuck are you two asswipes still staring at me for, get the fuck out!”

It was a mad scramble as the two men tried to escape the room without encroaching on Mickey’s personal space and Mickey didn’t do a damn thing to help them. He just watched until they’d left the store and then he made his way to the till, looked like he was going to have to man the damn thing until Ian got there.

But not even the thought of extra work could burst his bubble because if there was one thing that a Milkovich knew how to do it was milk a dumbass and right now Kash was turning out to be one of the biggest dumbasses Mickey had ever met.

*O*

It was another hour before Ian burst into the shop like the hounds of hell themselves were snapping at his heels and Mickey glanced up from the magazine he’d been reading as the redhead panted, hands on his knees as he tried catch his breath.

“The fuck happened to your face?” Mickey asked, eying the bruise that was blooming nicely around Ian’s left eye.

The kid shrugged as he straightened, still sucking in air like he thought he was going to start getting charged for it.

“ROTC training,” he gasped out and Mickey’s eyes narrowed because he didn’t know much about ROTC but he was pretty sure that they didn’t train in the middle of a school day. Then again Gallagher _had_ been almost an hour late, he was damn lucky that Mickey was the one around or Linda would’ve probably docked his pay.

“Whatever,” Mickey muttered finally when it didn’t look like Ian was going to say anything else.

Hopping off his stool he made his way back to the front of the store, stopping to stretch out the aches that came from sitting slumped over for so long. The sound of his back cricking was followed by a burst of pleasure that made him close his eyes and groan in relief.

He opened his eyes just in time to see Ian’s head whip around; the kid’s skin was so red that Mickey thought he was about to combust.

“You coming down with something, Red?” Mickey asked but Ian just shook his head, taking a moment before turning back around and by the time he was facing Mickey his skin was nearer to its normal paleness so Mickey just shrugged and stepped out of Ian’s way so that he could take over the till.

After a moment of silence Ian glanced around the store. “Who’s on with us today?”

Mickey’s lips twitched as he tried to hide his grin. “Dunno, Kash ran out a few hours ago so I figure we’re on our own.”

Ian’s brows hiked at that but he didn’t question it. “I saw Mandy at school today...” he started and Mickey glowered at him when the redhead grinned. “…heard you were there too.”

“Who the fuck told you that?” Mickey demanded, crossing his arms across his chest when Ian just smirked at him.

“I don’t give up my sources, Milkovich,” he sing-songed, chuckling when Mickey flipped him off. “So why were you there? I thought you were going to talk to your mom?”

“What did I tell you about getting up in my business, Gallagher?”

“Ain’t getting up in your business, just asking a question. You don’t wanna leave me in suspense if you’re going to be bunking at mine again,” Ian shot back and Mickey really didn’t know how the kid had survived on the streets so long with his smart mouth.

“Why you gonna miss me?” Mickey retorted but Ian didn’t answer right away, he just stared at Mickey with that odd look again and for some reason it made the hair on the back of Mickey’s neck stand on end.

“Maybe,” the redhead drawled, “Who else am I gonna bum smokes off?”

Mickey snorted, glad for the reprieve when the sly look from before transformed into Ian’s more familiar grin, for some reason it made him feel like he was on firmer ground and Mickey grasped the opportunity to change the topic with both hands. “You’ve got a job now, shithead, if you can’t afford a pack of smokes then you’re fucked,” he responded, reaching over the counter to grab his magazine from before just as the bell rang signalling that they had a customer.

Mickey didn’t turn around too engrossed in the sports page to give their new customer any attention but he did notice Ian’s dead silence and it made him glance up, the magazine all but crumpling in his fists as he met his mother’s gaze.

The woman was standing at the counter eying him like Mickey was some strange bug and Mickey was torn between flipping her off and demanding what the fuck Ian was staring at.

“So this is where you spend your days, Mihailo?” Sonja commented softly, her gaze flitting about the shop and Mickey cringed when she glanced at Ian.

“Ain’t you supposed to be bailing out Iggy and Tony?” he demanded, slapping the magazine against the counter.

The sound seemed to snap Ian out of the trance he’d settled into and the kid flushed before muttering something about stock and hightailing it.

“Your brothers will be home by the end of the week, I cannot say the same about you,” Sonja retorted. “It is good that you have a legal job but this does not mean that you are not expected home. We have matters to discuss and you will be there, am I understood?”

Mickey sneered at her. “And if I don’t feel like it?”

Sonja leaned forward, her gaze sweeping him from head to toe. “You will feel like it or your brothers will come looking for you. They return without you, they suffer for you.”

Mickey gritted his teeth, his jaw working as he shoved his hands into his pockets to stop himself from reaching out to wring her neck.

“Nice way to show you’re not fucked up, Ma,” he spat.

Sonja just shrugged. “I will be as crazy as I need to be if it protects you. You will be home at ten, Mihailo, not a minute later,” she told him, glancing around the shop one last time before brushing past him and out the door.

Mickey inhaled slowly, pressing his hands against the counter as he tried to reign in his temper. The tattoos on his knuckles seemed to taunt him as they stretched across his skin and he could feel a headache pounding at his temples already.

He couldn’t believe the bitch, walking up in there like she knew shit about him…but the truth was she seemed to know him too well.

Mickey wouldn’t hesitate to beat the fuck out of any of his brothers, hell even when he was fighting with Mandy he only held back enough to prevent any broken bones but the truth of it was he’d do anything to protect his siblings and Sonja knew that. It was the only weakness that Mickey had that he wasn’t ashamed of and fuck the bitch for using it against him when she’d been the one who’d taught it to him in the first place.

Biting his lip Mickey groaned because there was no way he was going to let the others get fucked over just because he didn’t want to listen to Sonja’s lies.

“Jesus Christ, Mickey, who the hell was that?”

Mickey glanced up to see Ian lurking just beyond the door of the storeroom. The kid was even paler than usual and Mickey wasn’t surprised, Sonja seemed to have that effect on people wherever she went.

“My Ma,” Mickey answered and Ian’s eyes widened.

“You know what fuck everything else that I said you can stay with us forever because no disrespect to you but she’s scary as fuck!” the redhead exclaimed and Mickey couldn’t help but laugh because Ian didn’t know the half of it.

Hell, Mickey felt like _he_ didn’t know the half of it either but he was going to find out.

*O*

The hours until their shift was over stretched out like it was never going to end but finally Kash turned up. He didn’t say a single word to Mickey but he did tell Ian that they could go and Mickey wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, all but booting Ian out the door when the redhead started muttering about cleaning up. Linda hadn’t hired them to clean up shit and Mickey wasn’t going to fucking start…he didn’t want her getting ideas that he was helpful and shit.

He’d explained that much to Gallagher on their way home and Ian hadn’t found any fault in his logic.

They paused in front of the Gallagher house and Mickey hitched his backpack higher as it started to slide down the shoulder he’d slung it over.

“You know if things go south you can come back here,” Ian told him and Mickey ducked his head but didn’t say anything because he wasn’t queer enough to admit that the kid’s words made him feel like he was worth something.

“You keep saying shit like that and people are gonna think you’re a fag,” Mickey pointed out.

Ian shrugged like that shit couldn’t get him killed and Mickey was starting to think that he’d missed just how tough the kid actually was.

“Anybody who wants to think that can. I think we’re friends even if you don’t and a friend to me means the same as family. I’m not saying anything to you that I wouldn’t say to Lip or Carl if they were in a fucked up situation,” Ian responded.

Mickey bit his lip as leaned against the closed gate. “It don’t matter what you think, Gallagher, it matters what the guy walking down the street thinks when he hears you.”

Ian stared at him for a moment, the bruise around his left eye standing out in stark contrast to his skin as the streetlight shone down on them.

“What do you think?” Ian finally asked and this time Mickey was the one who shrugged.

“I’m thinking that I don’t get how you survived out here so long when you keep wearing your fucking heart on your sleeve,” Mickey shot back, suddenly angry about the whole situation.

If he’d been from a different family or a different neighborhood, he wouldn’t have had to deal with Terry’s bullshit or Sonja’s. Maybe he wouldn’t have been such a pussy about who he wanted to fuck too but that shit wasn’t going to happen. Terry would gut him in a second if he found out that Mickey liked cock and he wasn’t ready to go shuffling off his mortal coil yet.

Ian exhaled slowly and Mickey clenched his fingers so that he didn’t have to look at the teen’s face.

“Look if I make you uncomfortable I’m sure we can work something out with Linda and….”

“Did I fucking say you made me uncomfortable? I’m not some bitch,” Mickey spat, glaring at Ian but the kid didn’t move an inch over than to cock his brow.

“I didn’t say you were,” he pointed out and just like that Mickey could feel himself deflating because Ian was right. All the kid had done was answer Mickey’s question and worry about him.

It was a fucking joke that someone actually caring had been enough to set Mickey off.

“Just forget I said anything, Red,” he whispered and Ian nodded though the way that he was watching Mickey said that he knew that there was more than Mickey was saying but he didn’t ask and Mickey was so fucking grateful for that because he sure as hell wasn’t about to talk about it.

“This place is so fucked up,” Ian sighed, his eyes flickering to his house where lights were already coming on.

Mickey wasn’t sure if Ian meant his house or their general neighborhood but given the way that the kid seemed to live for his family he was going to have to guess that Ian meant Southside as a whole and he couldn’t help but agree.

“It’s home though,” Ian continued and Mickey nodded because that was pretty much it. Southside was a fucking ghetto within a ghetto but it was part of them, even the lucky ones that got out rarely stayed away for long. “My point is no matter what people say about me or what they think about me, I’m Southside to the end. If someone thinks I’m a fag, let them. They step to me about it that’s a whole other story. I’m not gonna change myself for anybody…I can’t.”

“Nobody said shit about hiding, it don’t mean people need to go around advertising something that could get them gutted,” Mickey responded and it took him a minute to realize what he’d said but when he did all of his muscles locked.

Ian wasn’t fucking stupid and there was no way that he could’ve taken Mickey’s words for anything other than what they were…a fucking confession. A confession that Mickey hadn’t even realised that he’d given until it was too late.

Ian’s lips twisted as he frowned and Mickey’s hands were already clenched into fists because all it took was the wrong word in the wrong ear, that was all it would take to paint a target on his back and he done it all by his fucking self!

“Well it’s a good thing that I don’t care about what people are advertising then, right?” Ian murmured as he held Mickey’s gaze. “That’s one of the things you should know about me, Mickey. I’m a big fan of freedom, it’s why I want to join the army after all. It’s not my place to tell people who they should or shouldn’t care about.”

Mickey licked his dry lips and nodded because Gallagher couldn’t have been clearer if he’d given Mickey a fucking rainbow flag but there was still a chance that the kid thought that Mickey was talking about somebody else. It was damn unlikely but Mickey wasn’t going to say anything else that might dig his hole deeper than it already was.

Ian nodded back at him before turning to open his gate. “Just remember what I said, you can always slum it with us for another night if shit goes down.”

“I heard you the first time, Gallagher,” Mickey managed to choke out as Ian stepped into his yard.

“And don’t be late tomorrow!” Ian called after him as Mickey walked away.

Mickey just shot him the bird in response and Ian’s laughter rang in his ears all the way home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still unbeta'd. Posting will be every Monday and Thursday but if you want to discuss fic ideas I'm i-was-put-together-wrong over on tumblr. Come drop me a prompt.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Get up and go find some clothes,”
> 
> Mandy pulled back so that she could look up at him, her face was tear streaked and something in Mickey’s chest shattered because the last time Mandy had cried like this she’d been seven years old and too young to know better. 
> 
> “Bitch, you deaf? I said go pack some fucking clothes!” Mickey barked, standing and pulling her up with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting will be every Monday from now on unless I've got a free day in the week. 
> 
> Still unbeta'd.

Mandy was perched on their stairs when Mickey got home, her eyes puffy and swollen but her lips were twisted into a bitter line across her face. It was a look that said whoever had pissed her off had gotten as much as they’d given and it made Micky damn proud.

Dropping his backpack onto the ground he sat down beside her, not saying a word because he was shit at dishing out comfort and Mandy was even worse at accepting it. Most of that was probably Mickey’s fault, he hadn’t known the first thing about girls when Mandy started following him around but he’d known that weakness could get you killed and he’d taught the lesson to his little sister… probably too well.

“She’s a real fucking bitch, you know?” Mandy whispered and Mickey didn’t have to ask to know who Mandy was talking about. “Started going on and on about me throwing myself around as soon as I stepped in the fucking house, like she’s got any right to talk about that shit. I didn’t even remember what she looked like, Mickey, all I fucking remembered was that stupid nickname and the picture that Dad burned and she just comes up in here acting like mother of the year, like it wasn’t her fucking fault…” Mandy’s voice broke and Mickey was pulling her close before he knew what he was doing.

The scent of Mandy’s cheap shampoo clogged his nose and Mickey focused on that to block out the way that she was clinging to him and the moisture seeping through his t-shirt.

“She ain’t my fucking Ma, no matter what she says. If you and Jamie weren’t looking out for me I’d be dead by now so why the fuck should I listen to her? Why does she get to make me feel like I’m not shit?”

Mickey gritted his teeth, biting back all the things he could say because none of that shit would help.

“You listen to me, alright? That bitch in there, she don’t know you and she can’t make you feel like a fucking thing if you don’t let her,” he growled, burying his face in her hair when her body shook even more.

Everything was so fucked up and it felt like all the shit that Mickey had fought for so long was just slipping between his fingers but he’d be damned before he just sat back and let it!

“Where’s Jamie?”

“D-dunno,” Mandy responded and Mickey bit his lip before he made up his mind.

“Get up and go find some clothes,”

Mandy pulled back so that she could look up at him, her face was tear streaked and something in Mickey’s chest shattered because the last time Mandy had cried like this she’d been seven years old and too young to know better. 

“Bitch, you deaf? I said go pack some fucking clothes!” Mickey barked, standing and pulling her up with him.

“What about….” Mandy started but Mickey just shook his head.

“I’ll deal with her just pack enough shit for two days, alright?”

Mandy nodded but Mickey didn’t miss the way she hid behind him as they entered the house.

*O*

Mickey paused in the doorway when he caught sight of Sonja on the sofa but he got himself moving before she could say a word, shoving Mandy in the direction of her room before rounding on the woman he called his mother.

“It is good that you are here, now we can talk,” Sonja started like Mickey had just waltzed in with a smile on his face and arms wide open instead of all but hauling his crying sister into their own fucking house.

“I ain’t got shit to say to you…” Mickey started before thinking better of it because he was sick of running away like a pussy. “You know what? I take that shit back,” he spat, rounding on her. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

“Your mother,” Sonja commented lightly and the nonchalance in her voice made Mickey’s blood boil.

“You ain’t my Ma, she died twelve years ago, you’re just some bitch wearing her face and I’m fucking sick of seeing it. You just blow up in here, trying to fix shit, looking down on us like you’re some big shot holy roller but let me tell you something, you aint shit! You don’t get to just come back and fuck up our lives when you weren’t around to see half of the shit that we went through…”

“And you think this is my fault? You think that I stayed away from my children, from my own flesh and blood because I wanted to?!” Sonja shouted, leaping to her feet. “I loved you; every second that I couldn’t hold you in my arms all I could think of is how much I loved you all…”

“You didn’t love us enough if you thought that leaving us with Terry was a good idea,”

Mandy’s voice was steady and Mickey was glad for that. She had a backpack slung over her shoulder and it took Mickey a second to realize that it was his own but he wasn’t the only one who noticed it.

“What is that for?” Sonja demanded, her eyes narrowing but Mickey was already stepping in front of Mandy.

“None of your fucking business,” he spat before tugging Mandy by the arm. “Come on,”

“Mihailo, where are you going?!” Sonja shouted as she followed them out onto the porch but Mickey didn’t pause.

“Anywhere but here!” he retorted, ignoring the woman’s shouts as he lead Mandy out into the night.

It wasn’t until they were out of sight of the house that Mickey realized that Mandy was clinging to his hand.

“Where are we gonna go?” Mandy asked and Mickey glanced at her, taking in the paleness of her skin and the slant of her lips….he wondered if she’d always looked this unhappy and he just hadn’t noticed it.

“Gonna rough it at a friend’s,” he responded lightly.

He really hoped that Gallagher had been serious when he said that Mickey could come back if things went to shit because this was pretty much the Milkovich definition of a shit situation.

*O*

Mickey pounded on the Gallagher front door, keeping an eye on Mandy as she twisted the arms of his backpack in her hands. She’d been quiet the entire trip over and Mickey hadn’t tried to get her to talk because he knew that she would when she wanted to, there was no sense in trying to force her.

The door opening yanked him from his thoughts and he narrowed his eyes at the kid staring up at him.

“Who’re you?” the kid demanded but Mickey just glowered at him.

“Ian here?”

“Yeah and what?” was the response and Mickey bent so that he was closer to the little runt.

“Look here you little shithead, you can either get Ian or I can haul your ass our here and let my sister beat you down so badly you won’t wanna show your face on the streets again,”

The kid hesitated for a moment, glancing at Mandy but whatever he saw on her face was enough to get him moving.

“Ian, you’ve got a psycho waiting for you!” he yelled as he glared at Mickey and Mickey had to admit the kid had balls or he was just batshit crazy… you never knew with the Gallaghers.

“Carl, shut the fuck up!”

Ian’s voice preceded him by mere seconds and some of the tension in Mickey’s shoulders melted away when the redhead grinned upon seeing him.

“I’m taking it things went south?” he commented.

Instead of answering Mickey yanked Mandy out of the shadows where she’d been hiding.

Ian’s eyes widened but he quickly schooled his expression and nodded. “You better come in,”

*O*

The living room was a whirlwind of activity and Mickey watched as the woman Ian had introduced as Fiona sent everyone upstairs despite their groans and Lip’s arguments.

Mandy was a silent shadow at his side and Mickey was grateful when the chatter from before faded away.

“I didn’t tell anyone except Fiona because I sort of needed her permission,” Ian explained as he set out two cups of something on the table. When neither Mickey nor Mandy made a move towards it, he shoved the cups nearer. “It’s just hot cocoa; Fiona says it’ll settle your nerves.”

“Trust me on that one,” Fiona called from her place in front of the stove. “We’ve had enough run-ins with stress in this house to know.”

Taking a step forward Mickey grasped one of the cups and out of the corner of his eye he could see Mandy doing the same.

“Thanks,” he muttered, ducking his head when Fiona stared at him.

“Ian explained things to me,” she responded. “We’re familiar with absentee mothers,” her tone was bitter and Mickey frowned at Ian but the teen just shrugged.

“Monica took off again,”

Mickey nodded because that pretty much explained everything.

Glancing at Fiona, Mickey held her gaze when he realized she’d been staring at him. Ian was one thing but he wasn’t dumb enough to think that everyone would be comfortable with one Milkovich under their roof much less two. Their family tended to start shit wherever they went and Mickey was pretty sure that Fiona knew that. While he didn’t think that she’d bring it up in front of Ian Mickey wasn’t about to let her think that they wanted to scrounge off of them or anything.

“We just need a place to stay for tonight,” he announced, ignoring the way that Ian’s gaze flickered to the backpack that Mandy still had slung over her shoulder like she thought she’d need to bolt at any second.

“What are you going to do after that?” Fiona asked and Mickey was starting to think that nobody in this family knew when to keep their noses out of people’s business.

“We’ll work it out,” he spat, keeping his eyes on Mandy when she shoved the cup away from her.

“Mickey, you need a plan.”

Ian’s tone was calm and Mickey knew that the kid was right but he really didn’t give a fuck right now.

“Look, if you don’t want us here…”

“No one said that!” Fiona cut in, holding her hands up when Mickey moved back from the table. “Nobody’s saying that anyone needs to go anywhere, alright? If you two need a place to stay for tonight, you can stay here but if your mother calls the cops…”

Mandy snorted. “She’s not gonna call the police,”

Fiona looked sceptical but when Mickey nodded her expression cleared, a bit.

“It’s not you but we’re already in hot water with CPS, if we have cops sniffing around here…” she trailed off and Mickey glanced from her to Ian, holding the redhead’s gaze for a second before refocusing on Fiona.

“Ma’s a lot of things but she ain’t a snitch.”

“Yeah, she’ll send Jamie looking for us first,” Mandy added and Mickey smirked because the Gallagher house was the last place that any of his brothers would come looking.

“What if she calls CPS?” Ian asked.

The question made Mickey’s blood run cold but his expression didn’t shift as he stared at Ian. “We’ll be out of here before she does,”

“That’s not my point,” Ian cut in and Mickey glared at him because he knew that wasn’t Ian’s fucking point. He didn’t _want_ to think about Ian’s point and he didn’t get why the redhead couldn’t just let shit go.

“We’ll figure it out,” Mickey responded finally and though he could see that the answer didn’t make Ian happy, he did back off and that was enough for Mickey.

“Ok,” Fiona clapped, shattering the heavy silence. “You two can stay in Monica’s room for tonight and tomorrow we’ll talk about what happens next.”

Her tone pretty much said that there was no way that Mickey was going to weasel out of that one but Mickey just ignored it because they’d probably be gone before any of the Gallaghers woke up.

*O*

Fiona didn’t let them leave the living room until they’d actually drank the cocoa and Mickey was starting to see why the Gallaghers had managed to stay together despite their absentee parents because the woman was fucking scary when she wanted to be.

Mandy didn’t question Mickey when he led her up the stairs to the room where he and Red had spent the night with Monica.

Despite the fact that woman was gone Mickey could still smell her perfume and he wondered if that was why none of the Gallaghers had grabbed the chance of getting a room to themselves.

Mickey knew all about the ghosts of parents and he was thankful for their reluctance to take over the room because it meant that he didn’t have to let Mandy out of his sight…which wasn’t something he’d planned on doing in the first place.

Mandy dropped the backpack on the floor and sat on the bed gingerly.

“I packed some of your stuff in here too,” she told him and Mickey inclined his head, hoping that she could read the gratitude in the gesture because he was sick of dealing with his emotions.

“So are you and Ian friends?” Mandy asked when Mickey didn’t move from the window.

“We work together,” Mickey responded gruffly partially because he wanted Mandy to drop it and partially because he didn’t _know_ what he and Ian were. He just knew that for the first time in a fucking long time he had someone at his back that wasn’t related to him by blood and he kind of liked it. If that made him a bitch then fuck it, he’d deal with that shit when he felt ready to.

“Hey, Mickey,” Mandy whispered and Mickey glanced over at her, taking in the way that she looked even paler in the moonlight streaming through the window but the look on her face was all Milkovich and it told Mickey that she’d be alright.

“The fuck is it?” he asked and for some reason the harsh words made Mandy grin.

“I meant all that shit I said before, you know? You, Jamie, Joey, Tony fuck it even Iggy, you’re the only parents I had and I know that sometimes I’m a bitch about it…”

Mickey snorted at that because Mandy was a fucking bitch all the time.

Mandy glared at him but he could see the tiny curl of her lips. “I’m trying to say thanks, dickhead,” she muttered.

“Don’t need to tell me thanks for shit, you’re our kid sister if we didn’t keep you alive you’d probably haunt our asses until we offed ourselves,”

It didn’t sound like much but when Mandy’s smile softened Mickey knew that she’d heard the words he couldn’t bring himself to say…at least not out loud.

“I’ve got to be up at fuck o’clock tomorrow so go the fuck to sleep and if you kick me I’m tossing your ass on the floor,” Mickey grumbled as he made his way over and climbed into the bed.

Mandy didn’t respond to that but a few minutes later she pressed herself against Mickey’s back and Mickey didn’t say shit when she tangled their fingers together like she used to when they were kids.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I meant Ian, assface,” Mandy muttered.
> 
> Mickey shrugged, “He’s cool, why you asking?”
> 
> “I might ask him out,” Mandy smirked.
> 
> Mickey could feel his face doing something strange and the way that Mandy’s smirk slipped into a frown pretty much confirmed it.
> 
> “What?” she demanded.
> 
> “You aren’t his type,” Mickey responded, keeping his eyes on his knees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting early because my schedule for tomorrow isn't pretty. 
> 
> Still unbeta'd, also I feel like I should warn for violence but its honestly just Milkovich roughhousing.

Mickey didn’t get much sleep, images of Sonja and Terry ripping his family apart chasing each other around his head until the early hours of the morning. By the time the light under the windowsill had changed from the artificial yellow of the streetlights to the softer hue of dawn Mickey had given up on getting any rest.

Sitting on the bed he watched as Mandy twisted in her sleep, fingers spidering across the sheets until they clasped the pillow Mickey had been resting on. The frown on her face softened when she pulled the thing closer, pressing it to her face while she curved her body around it.

Reaching out, Mickey brushed his fingertips across her hair where it was scattered across her own pillow.

He didn’t have the foggiest clue what the fuck they were going to do next but he did know that he wasn’t going to let her go back to that house unless something changed. He was really hoping that _something_ would be Sonja’s presence but he wasn’t going to hold his breath.

Tugging the sheets from beneath her body, Mickey spread it over her shoulders and waited until her breath evened out before slipping from the room.

The stairs creaked beneath his feet; making him tense every time it sounded like someone was waking up but thankfully he made his way into the kitchen without any trouble.

His good mood sank like a fucking ship when he realized that he wasn’t as alone as he’d thought.

Fiona was standing at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee in her hand and another on the counter in front of her like she’d just been waiting for Mickey to appear.

“Sit down,” she ordered and while Mickey wanted to tell her to go fuck herself just on principle he took a seat because Mandy was still sleeping upstairs and technically the house was Fiona’s.

The woman nodded, shoving some stray hairs from her hair with one hand as she used her own cup to shove the other cup of coffee closer to him.

“You probably don’t remember but I went to school with your brothers so the old Milkovich way of cutting out before you actually get things sorted is nothing new to me,” she explained before Mickey could ask what the fuck she’d been doing up so early.

Eying her he pulled the cup closer. “If you want us out, we’ll be gone as soon as Mandy’s up,” Mickey bit out but Fiona just shook her head.

“I’m not kicking you out,” she told him, taking a sip of her own cup of coffee. “Like I said, I went to school with your brothers. I know the things you’re capable of if you think it’s for family but right now running into things, isn’t the way to do it,” she paused and shot him a rueful grin. “Trust me, I know.”

Mickey’s fingers tightened around his own cup of coffee but he didn’t say anything because he knew that she was right. Fiona was the one who had gone to court and fought CPS on countless occasions to keep her family in one home and while a part of Mickey was angry at the woman’s nerve, another part of him recognized that if anyone was going to give him some good advice it was the woman sitting in front of him.

Taking a drink of the coffee Mickey met Fiona’s gaze steadily. “The fuck do you think I should do then?”

Fiona put her cup down, her eyes flickering to the stairs. “I’m not going to tell you to go home because that’d make me a hypocrite. I’ve wanted to run away from Frank and Monica so many times that I’ve lost count. The only thing that kept me here was those kids and right now I’m seeing a lot of that in you,” she admitted, glancing back at him and Mickey scowled at the smirk on her face. “When Ian told me he’d been hanging with a Milkovich, I was all for telling him to drop you like a hot potato because I know the stuff your father has you all doing but the look on your face tonight…I’ve seen it on Tony’s face when the kids used to tease Iggy about his hand me downs…”

“Don’t act like you fucking know us!” Mickey spat but Fiona didn’t flinch at his tone.

“Are you trying to tell me you wouldn’t go prison to keep Mandy happy? Is that what you’re saying, Milkovich? Because if it isn’t then I’d say I know you a lot better than you think I do.”

Mickey gritted his teeth but didn’t say a word because she was right…not about everything but about Mandy. There wasn’t a damn thing Mickey wouldn’t do to keep the look he’d seen last night off of Mandy’s face.

“The fuck should I do then?” he demanded because if the woman was going to play wizard of Oz, Mickey was sure as hell going to get all he could out of her.

“The first thing you need to do is figure out if this thing is fixable. Do you think you two can go home and stay there after this?” she asked and Mickey shrugged because as much as he didn’t want people to know his family’s business, he needed the fucking help.

“Not with that bitch there,” he responded and Fiona nodded like he’d only confirmed something that she’d already known.

“I don’t know what happened but you do understand that your mother’s holding all the cards right now?” Fiona inquired; her tone soft like she thought raising her voice would make Mickey bolt.

“She’s only holding them until Terry gets out and there’s no way I’m letting Mandy be around for that shit,” Mickey responded.

Fiona was silent for a long moment. “Alright, here’s the thing. You chip in around here and you two can stay for a few days…” she paused again like she was thinking of the best way to say what was coming next. “… _but,_ you need to talk to your mother.”

Mickey crossed his arms and glared at her. “That shit ain’t happening.”

“If you don’t then she could come in here with CPS at any time and just take Mandy, you do get that right?” Fiona demanded.

Mickey’s eyes flickered to his knuckles as he thought that shit over because he knew that Fiona was right even if he didn’t want to admit it.

“Mandy’s not seeing her,” he spat and Fiona nodded, her frown vanishing as she grinned at him like Mickey had done some sort of trick.

“She doesn’t need to, all you need is permission for her to not be in the house for a few days while you get things sorted out,” she explained and Mickey nodded because this plan didn’t sound as fucked up as sleeping on the streets. Mickey didn’t have a problem with that, he’d done it enough times when Terry tried to kill him for some stupid shit but there was no fucking way that he was going to bring Mandy out there with him.

He glanced back at Fiona who was still grinning at him like a crazy person but he was saved from saying anything else when Ian came thundering into the room.

*O*

Despite his talk with Fiona Mickey didn’t plan to see Sonja if he could avoid it. As far as he was concerned them not coming back would tell the woman all she needed to now and if Sonja even thought about reporting shit, Mickey would make her regret it.

Fiona had promised to try and get Mandy off to school which left Mickey free to go to work. It was ironic as fuck that he hadn’t been looking for the job in the first place but now he definitely needed it because there was no way he could support both him and Mandy on the money he got from shaking people down.

Ian didn’t say a thing about Mickey turning up the night before, as they made their way to work. Hell, the kid didn’t even mention the conversation that Mickey was trying hard as fuck to forget ever happened. Instead Ian kept nattering on about how Carl now figured that Mickey was his new enemy.

Mickey snorted in amusement at that. “The fuck is he gonna do, chew on my ankles until I fall over?”

Ian side-eyed him with a tiny smirk, “I don’t know how to break this to you, Mickey but you’re really not all that taller than Carl,”

Mickey stopped dead in the middle of the road, his eye narrowing into slits. “What did you just say to me, Gallagher?”

“I’m just saying, you’re a little vertically challenged…” Ian replied with a grin, wisely staying out of range of Mickey’s fists.

Mickey mentally debated rushing the kid but he’d seen Ian running from Lip before and the little fucker was fast.

“Keep talking, Red, I like how you’ve forgotten that the Kash and Grab ain’t all that big,”

“Is that a threat?” Ian laughed but Mickey just glowered at him, tamping down the way that his lips were trying to curl into a smile though from the way that Ian was staring at him, he figured he hadn’t done a good job at hiding the expression.

He sure as fuck didn’t have to fake the scowl that settled on his face when he caught sight of Jamie lingering outside the store.

Ian paused, glancing from Mickey to his brother and from the way that the kid’s eyes were narrowing Mickey knew that he was planning to stay right by Mickey’s side but Mickey would be fucked before he needed to be rescued from his own damn family.

“Tell Linda I’ll be a minute,” he told the redhead, shoving Ian forward when he hesitated.

Jamie smirked as Ian circled him and Mickey was pretty sure that his brother could break the kid like a twig…not that Mickey was going to give him the chance to.

“We ain’t coming home so you can tell Sonja to go fuck herself,” he greeted and Jamie scoffed.

“She’s figured,” he responded, scratching his head. “Joey talked her out of looking for you herself, said you needed time or some shit. It got Ma off your back but he made it sound like you were on the rag,” the look on Jamie’s face said he’d enjoyed the description a little too much.

“When the fuck did Joey grow a brain?” Mickey inquired, trying hard to mask his relief though he doubted he was successful but Jamie just shrugged.

“It’s only bought you a couple of days but Joey’s trying to get her to calm her tits about the whole thing…just don’t leave it too long ‘cause you know how she gets,”

Mickey nodded, he did know how Sonja got, didn’t mean he wanted fuck all to do with her though.

“Mandy alright? Ma said she flipped out,” Jamie asked after a long moment and Mickey pretended not to hear the concern in his brother’s voice.

“She’s one of us, ain’t she?” he shot back, frowning as he remembered the way Mandy had curled around the pillow in her sleep. “She didn’t know Ma, alright? Her just showing up…it’s fucking with her head, especially with Sonja’s new attitude.”

Jamie nodded, then groaned as he stretched. “I’ve got to go see my parole officer but you really need to talk to Ma,” he reminded Mickey, ignoring the glare that his words got him as he slapped Mickey on the back.

“Whatever,” Mickey muttered, watching as his brother ambled off.

“Everything alright?”

Ian’s voice made Mickey turn away from Jamie’s retreating form.

“It’s all good, Firecrotch,” he responded, schooling his expression. “Though Linda had better have not been fucking with me about that free breakfast because I’ll start shaking down these dumbasses,” Mickey threatened as he followed Ian into the store.

*O*

Living with the Gallaghers was strange as fuck, at least that was what Mickey thought.

Before Ian Mickey hadn’t had much of a reason to interact with the family other than the times when he had to threaten Lip to get him to do his homework and the odd run in with Frank when he owed Terry money.

All in all Mickey really didn’t know how to react to so many people living in one house without fights breaking out. Hell, the longest he’d ever gone without starting shit with his brothers was when he’d broken an arm and the only reason why he hadn’t ended up clobbering one of them over the head with his cast was because Iggy had gotten him some good drugs…the peace had only lasted one week.

“They’re fucking strange, you know?” Mandy whispered as she watched Lip and Fiona go toe to toe about something. Mickey didn’t know what the fuck they were arguing about but if he’d ever gotten up in Tony’s face like that he’d have ended up with a black eye, not that he’d have let Tony get away with that shit but his brother was built like a fucking brick house and Mickey recognized that that meant getting on Tony’s bad side was a dumb idea.

“Got their shit together though,” Mandy added when Lip slinked away while Fiona glowered after him. Mickey didn’t need to be told to know that by dinner time the two of them would be acting like nothing had happened.

Mickey shrugged, twisting his head away when Fiona glanced over at them.

He’d been avoiding the woman for the past few days. Mickey knew that Fiona wanted to know what his Ma had said but that shit wasn’t happening especially seeing as Mickey hadn’t seen the woman since the night him and Mandy had cut out.

“Has anyone seen Ian?” Debbie called as she ran into the room.

“Ask Mickey,” Lip commented and Mickey glanced at him, eyes narrowing at the smug look on the other teen’s face.

“Why don’t you ask Mickey so I can rearrange your face,” he snarled, holding Lip’s gaze until he raised his hands and backed out of the room, that stupid grin still on his face.

Debbie faltered as she stared at Mickey like she wanted to ask her question but the expression on his face was warning her not to.

“I don’t know where Red is, kid. I ain’t his fucking keeper,” he muttered, ignoring the hissed ‘language’ from Fiona.

Debbie frowned for a minute before trudging back upstairs.

Most of the time the Gallaghers would leave Mickey and Mandy alone, with the exception of Ian, it wasn’t something that Mickey had started but he did encourage the behaviour by being a general dickhead when he could. He didn’t need his reputation getting fucked up just because they’d taken him in.

Mandy stretched where she was lying across the sofa, using her foot to prod at Mickey until he grabbed her ankle and yanked, sending her sprawling.

“The fuck was that for?” she yelped as she rearranged herself so that she was once again taking up most of the sofa that they were sitting on.

“The fuck were you kicking me for?” Mickey shot back.

Mandy scrunched up her face like she’d tasted something bad. “What do you think about Gallagher?”

Mickey glowered at her because she wasn’t that fucking stupid and she knew he couldn’t read minds.

The look seemed to be enough to make her realize that she was being an idiot because she glared at him like it was his fault which was Mandy’s way of dealing with embarrassment…blame the other guy.

“I meant Ian, assface,” she muttered.

Mickey shrugged, “He’s cool, why you asking?”

“I might ask him out,” Mandy smirked.

Mickey could feel his face doing something strange and the way that Mandy’s smirk slipped into a frown pretty much confirmed it.

“What?” she demanded.

“You aren’t his type,” Mickey responded, keeping his eyes on his knees.

Mandy yanked her feet back so that she was sitting up. “How the fuck do you know that?”

Mickey rolled his shoulders but didn’t respond until she punched him in the shoulder.

“Touch me one more time and I’m gonna stomp all over your skinny ass,” he warned but Mandy just narrowed her eyes.

“How the fuck do you know that I’m not his type?” she repeated slowly, like Mickey was the one throwing a bitch fit because he couldn’t get a leg over.

“The kid said it, alright? I thought he was going after you so I warned him and he said some shit about wanting to be friends with you,” Mickey explained, more to keep the peace than anything else because he wasn’t above strangling Mandy if she started whining over some stupid shit when he had bigger things on his plate.

Mandy frowned, “What’s his type then?”

“The fuck should I know, bitch? I ain’t the one looking to suck his dick, alright? You go fucking ask him,” Mickey snarled back.

Mandy gaped at him for a minute before snorting. “No wonder you can’t keep a girlfriend, you’re about as romantic as a fucking paper bag,”

“Paper bag, huh?” Mickey inquired.

Mandy sneered at him like Mickey couldn’t do shit, which was exactly why he grabbed her by the tits and twisted until she was screaming bloody murder.

Mickey didn’t get to celebrate his victory for long. Mandy managed to twist beneath him, ramming her elbow back into his crotch and Mickey’s entire system went haywire as he tried to shove her off.

They went tumbling onto the floor and Mickey managed to get a grip on Mandy’s hair, yanking the long strands backwards but not before Mandy sunk her teeth into his arm while she tried to claw his fucking eyes out.

Then there were hands hauling Mickey off Mandy and he could hear someone shouting but he was laughing too hard to hear them.

On the other side of the room Fiona was holding Mandy up even though she looked steady on her feet.

She bared her teeth at Mickey and he wasn’t surprised to see that they were bloody considering that it felt like she’d taken a fucking chunk out of his arm.

“You hit like a fucking girl!” Mickey taunted as he struggled out of the arms holding him back.

Glaring over his shoulder he met Ian’s confused gaze before turning to check on Mandy.

“You alright?”

Mandy shrugged, tugging her hair out of her face. “I told you to stop with the titty twisters,” she muttered as she stumbled past Fiona who was watching them like she thought they were going to go for each other’s throats again.

The woman even lurched forward when Mandy all but collapsed against Mickey but she faltered when Mickey just slung an arm over her shoulder.

“If I start pissing blood I’m digging out your womb with a rusty spoon,” Mickey threatened tugging Mandy down onto the sofa so that he could see her face.

Mandy snorted, batting his hands away. “My tits hurt, assface. You’re lucky I didn’t kick you in the nuts,”

“Ok, I’m confused,” Ian finally cut in and Mickey glanced up at him. “I thought you were fighting.”

“Yeah and?” Mickey prompted but Ian just gaped at them like a fucking fish.

Mandy snorted again. “Can’t believe I wanted to fuck him,”

“What?!” Ian squawked but Mickey had already started laughing too hard to answer and Fiona led Ian out of the room before Mandy could say anything else.

“And people think we’re fucked in the head,” Mandy muttered, which just set Mickey off again.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So how’s school? Mandy said you’ve actually been to class now,”
> 
> Mickey wrinkled his nose and shrugged. “Ain’t like I’ve got anything else to do plus the teachers are too shit scared to make me do anything….”
> 
> “Like they could make you do anything,” Ian snorted and Mickey just grinned at him.
> 
> “See, I knew you weren’t as stupid as you looked, Red,” he teased, glowering at Ian when the other teen grabbed the sweet that Mickey had just been reaching for

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still unbeta'd and sorry for the delay.

Ian managed to lure Mickey out of the house with promises of food before work, which was why Mickey found himself waiting outside Kash and Grab a full hour before his shift.

He’d only been waiting for a few minutes when Ian emerged from the store, a frown painting his face and a bag of snacks in his hand.

“Did Linda change the employee policy or something?” he inquired, holding the bag open so Mickey could dig through it.

Mickey wasn’t really focused on Ian’s words so he just shrugged, grinning when he caught sight of two packs of Jell-O hidden beneath the rest of the snacks.

Grabbing a Twix, Mickey ripped it open with his teeth before he realized that the kid had asked him something.

“Why you asking?”

“Kash didn’t ask me to pay for these,” Ian responded, glancing back at the store like he thought Kash was going to come out and suddenly announce the reasoning behind his actions.

Mickey had a damn good idea _why_ Kash hadn’t asked Ian to pay but he wasn’t going to tell Ian that. Instead he took a huge bite of the chocolate in his hand, making a production of eating it when an old lady passed and glared at them.

“So how’s school? Mandy said you’ve actually been to class now,”

Mickey wrinkled his nose and shrugged. “Ain’t like I’ve got anything else to do plus the teachers are too shit scared to make me do anything….”

“Like they could _make_ you do anything,” Ian snorted and Mickey just grinned at him.

“See, I knew you weren’t as stupid as you looked, Red,” he teased, glowering at Ian when the other teen grabbed the sweet that Mickey had just been reaching for. “I’m gonna take that shit back if you don’t pass it over,” Mickey warned as Ian unwrapped the candy but Ian just shoved the lollipop in his mouth, his lips curving into a smirk around the stick.

Mickey glanced around, making sure that no one was around to see him, then he stomped on Ian’s foot _hard_ , taking the kid’s yelp of pain as the opportunity it was and a second later Ian was gaping at him as Mickey shoved the lollipop into his own mouth.

“Told you not to fuck with my food,” Mickey responded, smirking when Ian’s eyes flickered to his lips.

He liked the game of chicken that they’d been playing ever since his not-confession but Mickey wasn’t stupid enough to push it too far just in case Ian didn’t know what the fuck he was doing.

Ian swallowed then ducked his head as he fumbled in the bag for something else but Mickey could see the kid’s blush spreading down his neck and he wondered when Ian had gotten taller than him or maybe the kid had always been taller. Ian had a habit of hunching on himself like he was trying to get people to forget that he was there. If it was anyone other than Ian Mickey was pretty sure it would’ve worked on him too but he was too aware of everything Ian did to even think of forgetting him.

It was fucked up because Mickey wasn’t sure if it was genuine attraction or if he was just reacting to Ian in that way because he was the first person Mickey could be himself around without having to worry about getting gay bashed. Not that Mickey was going to actually admit shit to Ian because while he trusted the kid, he didn’t trust him that much…hell Mickey didn’t even trust himself that much and wasn’t that the saddest fucking thing you’d ever heard?

“So you think it’s an e-employee discount?” Ian finally asked again, his voice breaking slightly when he glanced up at Mickey.

Mickey frowned. “What?”

“You know, Kash just giving us free shit,” Ian clarified and Mickey snorted.

“Nah, man. He just owed me some change from the other day,” he responded.

Ian stared at him for a long moment but Mickey just cocked a brow at him.

“You got something to say, Red?” he demanded.

Ian shrugged. “I didn’t think you even talked to Kash,”

Mickey’s lip twitched into a sneer that made Ian laugh.

“Jesus, Mickey, you do realize that he could make our job hell, right?”

Mickey scraped the taste of bile off his tongue as the image of Kash in the backroom flickered through his head. Turning his face, he spat before turning back to face Ian.

“I’d like to see the pussy try,” he growled.

Ian just rolled his eyes, pulling a soda from the bag. “I’m just saying, starting shit with him is stupid, you know?” he muttered before taking a sip and passing the drink to Mickey.

“Haven’t done anything yet, have I?”

“That’s not exactly reassuring,” Ian pointed out but Mickey shrugged. He wasn’t going to promise good behaviour when he knew he had a temper, the most he could give Ian was assurance that he wouldn’t start shit unless he had too…or he wanted to. It wasn’t much as far as assurances went so he kept that shit to himself.

It wasn’t like he had to play nice with Kash, he didn’t owe the idiot a damn thing. He was lucky that Mickey was the one who’d caught him and not his wife though Mickey would’ve loved to see that shit go down. He was pretty sure that Linda would rip the guy’s heart out if she knew though he had heard about women marrying guys who were gay because of family obligation. Mickey didn’t give a fuck either way, as long as Kash held up his side of the bargain, Mickey would keep his mouth shut.

“Look I care about me getting paid and I’m not going to fuck that up, alright? Anything else is up in the wind,” Mickey muttered and if Ian’s smile made him feel a tiny bit like a better person then fuck it. It wasn’t like anybody was going to call him on shit.

*O*

“So guess who I ran into this morning?”

Mickey glanced up from where he’d been attempting to glare Carl into submission at Fiona’s voice. Seeing as it was only the three of them there Fiona was either talking to him or Carl.

“Who?” Carl piped up, his face screwed up like Fiona had fucked with him personally instead of lessening the possibility of Mickey kicking his ass.

“I’m not talking to _you_ ,” Fiona stressed and Mickey cocked a brow when she narrowed her eyes at him. “I ran into your mother at the grocery store….” She started and Mickey sneered to hide the instinctive wince that followed her words.

“Yeah? What’d the bitch have to say then?” he inquired, flicking his gaze away from Fiona’s though he could still feel her eyes boring into his back.

“It might help if you didn’t call her a bitch all the time,” Fiona started and Mickey scoffed because anybody that made Mandy cry was a bitch in his books, mother or not. The thought didn’t exactly make him feel any worse when Fiona added, “It might also help if you actually talk to her instead of letting people thing you talked to her,”

“Do I need to hear this?” Carl cut in, his eyes shifting from Mickey to Fiona.

Fiona shot him a pointed look and Carl seemed to take that as his cue to leave, managing to kick Mickey in the shin before he tore up the stairs.

Mickey narrowed his eyes as he imagined all the ways in which he was going to kick the little fucker’s ass as soon as he was done being grilled.

Shifting his attention back to the woman in question, Mickey grinned at the less than pleased look on Fiona’s face. If he’d learned one thing about the Gallaghers it was that as much as Fiona could be a hardass she usually couldn’t keep the act up for long unless she was genuinely pissed and almost on cue Fiona’s glower melted into her more natural state for coping with minimal bullshit which Ian called her bitch face.

“So what’d Sonja want?”

Fiona shrugged, her eyes dropping to the vegetables she was hacking into pieces. “Not much, she wanted to say ‘hi’, let me know she was back in the neighbourhood, remind me that her Terry’s a piece of shit…” she paused here, smirking at Mickey like she thought he’d be offended. “…her words,”

Mickey was tempted to roll his eyes but he wasn’t secretly a teenage girl so he kept that shit under wraps.

“Mostly she wanted me to know that Southside isn’t big enough to hide two missing Milkovich kids,”

Mickey tensed, “She threatened you?”

Fiona snorted at that, raising her eyes to meet his. “Contrary to popular belief, I can take care of myself,” she muttered and while Mickey didn’t doubt that, he also didn’t doubt that Sonja could be a fucking psycho when she wanted to. No matter how bad shit had gotten with Frank Mickey doubted that any of the Gallaghers had ever had to deal with someone as fucked in the head as his Ma could be.

“You might ignore me but I think she really misses you,” Fiona continued, breaking into Mickey’s mental meandering.

“She say that?”

“She didn’t need to. I’ve dealt with enough mothers who don’t want their kids to know the signs of one who does,”

Mickey didn’t respond but the way that he turned his back on Fiona was probably answer enough because the woman was silent for a while.

“She wanted you to know that Iggy and Tony are out but they’re on house arrest so if you want to see them you can stop by,”

“Why the fuck would I want to see those two shitheads?” Mickey spat, crossing his arms as he glared at the far wall.

Fiona didn’t respond to that and the only thing that broke the silence was the sound of her knife slicing through the vegetables she was preparing for dinner until even that faded away into nothing.

Mickey didn’t turn around when he heard her move away from the counter and he held himself still when her footsteps stopped just behind him.

“You know, no matter what this neighbourhood tries to convince you, caring for someone other than yourself isn’t a sign of weakness,” Fiona commented lightly and a second later Mickey felt something brush the top of his hair. The touch was there and gone in a flash, if he hadn’t been so focused on Fiona he probably would have missed it but even when the sound of her footsteps moved back towards the stove Mickey could still feel the ghost of her fingertips rustling his hair...like his Ma used to.

“I’ll go see them but I ain’t promising shit,” Mickey warned her, not sure why he was agreeing to anything but the sound of Fiona’s hums made the tension fade from his body as he sunk further down onto the sofa.

Another thing he’d learned from the Gallaghers was that while Fiona couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, if she was humming that meant she was happy and Mickey didn’t have a lot of experience with making people happy but he figured that he sort of liked it.

Glancing over the top of the sofa he watched Fiona’s back as she moved around. He’d seen Fiona go off on the other Gallaghers more than once but Mickey had never seen her lash out without a good fucking reason. It was probably why the rest of them actually listened to her when she said shit.

Mickey wasn’t used to that, he wasn’t used to anyone keeping everybody else under control so that he didn’t have to. It confused the hell out of him sometimes but Fiona didn’t seem to judge him for that.

He knew that at first Fiona hadn’t really trusted him, not like Ian had but that just meant she had more common sense than the kid did. The fact that she hadn’t tossed them to the curb the second that Sonja confronted her was another thing that made Mickey uneasy. He wasn’t sure what was with the Gallaghers or why they felt like they had to help him and Mandy but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Oi, you want some help?”

The words were out of his mouth before he really considered them and he could see Fiona’s surprise written clearly on her face but she schooled it before Mickey could take the words back.

“You sure you’re not just looking to poison us so you won’t have to keep that promise of yours?” she taunted and Mickey snorted as he glowered at her.

“Bitch, you wish you could cook like me,” he retorted, making his way to the stove.

The Gallaghers weren’t his family and Mickey wasn’t stupid enough to think that he could stay there forever but he could enjoy the chance while he had it.

*O*

Mickey stopped in front of his house and just stared.

He couldn’t remember a time when their front yard hadn’t been filled with all sorts of shit so it was pretty fucking surprising to see it now.

The grass was tinged a sickly brown from lack of sun but Mickey had always assumed that there’d been nothing but dirt under the trash so he didn’t really care that the scraggly brambles were more weeds than anything else.

Shoving the gate open he climbed the stairs.

The steps and the porch was free of debris too and Mickey racked his mind as he tried to remember if he’d left anything important out there.

Shrugging he tried the door. It wasn’t usually locked seeing as no one was stupid enough to try and break into their house but sometimes one of them remembered that they weren’t living in a cell anymore so they could lock shit. In all honesty that duty usually fell on Mandy so Mickey frowned when the door didn’t open like he’d expected but then again he couldn’t really remember if Sonja had been a big fan of locked doors.

Rapping on the door, Mickey stepped back and waited, twisting a loose thread that hung from his sleeve, around his fingers.

The door opened to reveal Tony’s ugly mug. He squinted a bit, like the sun was blinding him or some shit then he finally seemed to realize that the door hadn’t knocked itself.

“Mickey? The fuck you doing here?”

Mickey glowered at the idiot. “I live here, don’t I?”

Tony frowned but he did move out of the way and Mickey ducked under his arm because waiting for Tony to move fully might actually have killed him.

“Ma ain’t here,” Tony told him as he locked the door and Mickey dragged his eyes away from the clean space around them to refocus on Tony as his brother lumbered over to the sofa.

“Didn’t come to see her,” Mickey muttered, scratching at his nose with a blunt nail that he’d bitten almost to the nail bed.

Tony blinked slowly and Mickey wondered if his brother was high or just hung-over.

Perching on the side of the sofa he glanced around again, taking in the clean interior of the house. “Anybody fuck with you in lockup?”

Tony shook his head, scratching at his stomach through his shirt. “Nah, man, some dude tried to step to Iggy but you know Iggy…” Tony trailed off with a grin and Mickey frowned at him because he knew Iggy, he knew that Iggy was so fucked in the head that he’d lash out and not remember the consequences until his sentencing hearing. “It was cool though, especially seeing Ma up there,”

Mickey’s lips twisted into a sneer but he didn’t say anything because Tony knew that he would have bailed them out…he was the only one ever did.

“Iggy almost punched her in the face, still isn’t talking to her,” Tony added and Mickey cocked a brow at that but he shouldn’t really have expected anything else from Iggy.

“What about you, you cool with her?” he asked.

Tony shrugged again, his dark eyes flickering over to where Mickey was seating even though Tony didn’t meet Mickey’s gaze. “It’s fucked up, you know? I love her cause she’s my Ma but I kinda wish she never came back. We haven’t got shit to offer her, Mick, we’re so fucked up it ain’t even funny,”

Mickey didn’t say anything to that because he didn’t have anything to say. It was like a shock to the system hearing his own thoughts coming from his brother’s mouth but Tony was right. They weren’t the kids that Sonja had left behind, no matter how much she wished they were.

“She tell you what happened?”

Tony shook his head. “Didn’t ask…figured if I didn’t know I wouldn’t have to choose between her and Terry, you know?”

“Like you’d fucking choose Terry.”

Mickey started at Iggy’s voice, almost tipping over but the reflexes he’d honed on the streets saved his ass and probably his head because he’d been slammed against the floor enough times to know that it was hard as fuck.

“You trying to fucking kill me?” he snarled, glaring at his brother but Iggy just grinned at him like Mickey was the funniest shit he’d seen in days.

“If I was trying to kill you, you’d be dead,” Iggy pointed out and Mickey wasn’t stupid enough to think that that was an idle threat. Iggy was the one most likely to shank someone for looking at him the wrong way then walk away laughing while they bled out. Iggy was also the one least likely to accept anyone’s bullshit…even Terry’s so regardless of the fact that he was fucked in the head he was usually the one that Mickey went to when he needed something fixed. All of that didn’t mean Mickey was going to let Iggy get away with threatening him like he was some sort of pussy.

“Try it, fuckface,” he growled.

Iggy smirked at him as he dropped down on the sofa, shoving at Tony until the older man slapped him upside the head.

Mickey snorted as he watched the two of them because despite his reaction Tony still shifted over on the sofa to give Iggy space.

“So you wanna tell me why you and Mandy are living with the Gallaghers? You tryin’ to say that Frank’s brats are better than we are?” Iggy inquired, fixing Mickey with his best ‘talk to me, I’m definitely not a fucking psychopath’ look. That shit had stopped working on Mickey when he was six.

“You should ask Sonja about that shit,” Mickey muttered because he wasn’t gonna play snitch no matter how fucked up his relationship was with his Ma.

Iggy frowned at him but he didn’t ask again. “Fuck it, you sort your shit out however you want to but you sort it out before Terry gets out, you hear me?”

“Would the two of you shut the fuck up already?” Tony cut in before Mickey could respond. “Whatever shit went down between you and Ma, you two can’t just hide with the Gallaghers forever. Cause if Ma doesn’t drag you home, CPS is gonna the next time that they raid that place.”

Mickey bit his lip pensively. He knew that they’d have to sort their shit out one way or another but he wasn’t ready to open that bag of worms so he just shrugged when he realized that Tony was still staring at him.

“We’ll sort it out,” he muttered.

It wasn’t a promise but it was enough to get Tony to stop giving him the thousand yard stare.

“Alright you shitheads, where the fuck is the controller cause I feel like kicking your asses somewhere that ain’t likely to give me a concussion,” Iggy muttered, digging his hand into the sides of the sofa and just like that they were back to normal, or as normal as their family had ever been.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “In that place you have no respect, no name, you are number only. When the other women look at you, they see weakness and they see prey. I was not weak; I was not raised to be weak. I taught them that,” Sonja’s tone had dipped into something dark that Mickey had heard in his own voice on more occasions than he could count and it made him grin despite the pain that was twisting in his chest. “Then they came, the men in suits. They show me pictures and all I can see is my babies with marks on their skin, marks that I had not put there…would never have put there. They tell me that Terry hurts you, that they cannot do anything because none of you will talk and then they tell me of him…”
> 
> Sonja shifted on the bed and Mickey moved his hands just enough to see her sit up, her eyes fixed on something he couldn’t see but the way that her lips pull into a sneer told Mickey exactly who she was thinking about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've fallen out of the fandom for a while so this is my attempt at getting back on track. I'll be working on this until I get some more inspiration for Sweet Boy Swayin'.

“Mr Milkovich, if I could have a minute,”

Mickey turned his attention from the book he’d spent the last ten minutes pretending not to read to the man standing at the front of their class. Several of the idiots who he called classmates paused but one glare from Mickey had them packing their shit up even faster than before because the last thing anyone wanted right now was to get on his bad side. There was a particularly messed up rumour going around that Mickey had decided to beat the fuck out of Simon Collins for trying to step in on his turf while he’d been paying truant.

It wasn’t exactly a lie though Mickey hadn’t meant to break all of the fucker’s fingers but Simon didn’t know when to keep his mouth shut and Mickey had seen red when the kid decided to bad mouth Mandy.

Either way, Simon was in the hospital and Mickey had his reputation back…now he was just wondering if he’d beaten the kid hard enough to make the fucker squeal.

The first rule of Southside was that snitches didn’t live long and if Mickey ended up in trouble for that shit he was gonna pay Simon a visit real soon.

“Who the fuck are you?” he spat, watching the man warily.

The guy held up both hands in supplication, like Mickey was a wild dog or some shit.

“You’re not in trouble, Mr Milkovich,” he responded in lieu of a greeting.

Mickey snorted because he was always in trouble.

“Then what the fuck do you want?”

“My name’s Jerry Farnworth….”

Mickey stopped shoving his books into his bag so that he could glare at the man. “Did I ask you what your name was?”

The man chuckled ruefully like Mickey was the funniest thing he’d heard all day and the reaction made Mickey’s eyes narrow because he’d knocked people out for a lot less than laughing at him.

“Look, son, you don’t know me and all I know about you is what I’ve heard in the conferences but you left some of your drawings behind in Mrs Garland’s math class and while she wasn’t really pleased about that…” Mickey smirked because the old woman was a fucking bitch so anything he could do to piss her off was a job well done in his book. “…I happened to come across them and I was wondering if you wanted to sign up for our art class?”

Mickey frowned because why the fuck would he want to take on more shit? It wasn’t like he was turning up to this shithole because he wanted to be there but he figured that he’d already pissed Sonja off enough by moving out, the last thing he wanted was to push the bitch to actually go to CPS.

“And I’m guessing that that look says your answers going to be no but hear me out,” the man cut in quickly. “I’ve discussed this with some of the other teachers and they agreed that seeing as you’re not really attempting to do your work in any other class they’d be willing to let you use the art studio if you turned in your work on time…”

Mickey scowled, “What about if I don’t do any of this shit and just keeping turning up here so I don’t get kicked out?”

Farnworth sighed. “I can’t keep you from doing that Mr Milkovich but it would be a shame to waste your potential. I’m taking it that you’ve never had any training?”

“Who the fuck would teach me shit around here?”

Jerry nodded at that, like he’d already guessed what Mickey’s answer was going to be. “I’m going to be straight with you, son. This school can’t wait to see the back of you. You’re out of control and half of the teachers here are genuinely scared of you and when you leave they’ll probably throw a party but this…” he slapped a few sheets of paper against the desk and Mickey caught sight of one of his sketches of Mandy on the top one. “…this is real talent. People out there have practiced for years to do what you do naturally….don’t throw that all away,”

“I don’t do school…” Mickey reminded him.

“And I’m not asking you to. All I want is for you to come in for a few hours each day. I’m not going to force you to do all the other work there but as long as you turn in at least _some_ of it and a sketch or two I can probably work something out.”

Mickey considered that for a moment. It sounded like a sweet deal but he wasn’t about to look like he was desperate.

“I’ll think about it,”

Mr Farnworth almost looked relieved and Mickey wondered if the guy was fucked in the head because his drawings weren’t anything special…Terry had told him that often enough to make it stick.

Grabbing his bag, Mickey left the man behind but when he paused at the door he found the guy bent over the sketches, his fingers brushing across the pages like they were worth something.

Mickey scoffed and hitched his bag higher before heading in the opposite direction to the class that he was supposed be attending.

*O*

Mickey wasn’t sure what made him go back home after his shift was over at the Kash and Grab. It wasn’t like his brothers were going to tell him to take up the crazy teacher’s offer or something but his feet still carried him to his front gate and he figured he could spare a few minutes before Mandy started worrying that he was dead in a ditch somewhere.

This time when he tried the door it was open.

The house was quiet when he stepped inside which either meant his brothers were asleep or out. Considering the fact that Tony had looked like he was about ready to pass out on the floor when he left them Mickey figured that they were most likely sleeping off whatever shit they’d been doing the night before.

Without the distraction of his siblings Mickey stared at their house. He felt out of place here, he wasn’t used to the cleanliness or the order that Sonja had forced over the place and he wondered what she was trying to wipe away, the grime or her own guilt.

The door to his room was firmly closed but when Mickey twisted the knob he hadn’t expected to find the woman, who he’d just been thinking about, curled up on his sheets.

The dim light streaming from behind him was enough to highlight the tear marks on her face and the fact that her eyes were opened and focused on him.

For a minute Mickey thought about backing out of the room and just leaving her there because he didn’t owe her shit but the way she was curled in on herself made him hesitate.

Monica had looked like that, her eyes had been just as dull like the shit she’d broken couldn’t be fixed and she’d just given up. Mickey had never seen his Ma with that look in her eyes, not even when she walked around the house with bruises on her skin and a sneer on her face.

He took one step further into the room and then another and she watched him every step of the way, her eyes tracking his movement like she thought Mickey was the crazy one.

When he was close to the bed she shifted her feet just a little but it was an invitation that Mickey was willing to accept.

“I did not expect to return to a loving family,” she started and Mickey closed his eyes, letting himself focus on her voice, because if he looked at her all that anger was going to come bubbling to the surface again, and for the first time he didn’t hear her anger or the fucked up expectations that she’d been forcing on them. For the first time since the moment he’d walked into their house and seen her sitting on their sofa Mickey heard his Ma. “Terry had deal with runners that went bad and someone was dead, this is what he told me. He said they knew him, knew he had family, that he could be pressured into taking blame. I did not believe it,” Sonja scoffed and Mickey didn’t blame her because Terry just saw his kids as things to use not people. “…that kopile cared for none of us but I did and he knew that. You are my children and when he says “Sonja you must take blame or they die,” I did it. He walked me into police station and I confessed to crime. Ten years Mihailo, I sat in that place for ten years knowing I would never leave; never see any of you again but you would be alive and that…it was enough.”

Mickey pressed his knuckles to his eyes but he didn’t stop her because he needed to hear this. Every fucked up detail made him feel like he was breaking apart but he didn’t move, not even an inch because he wanted her to stop talking but he needed to hear it all.

“In that place you have no respect, no name, you are number only. When the other women look at you, they see weakness and they see prey. I was not weak; I was not raised to be weak. I taught them that,” Sonja’s tone had dipped into something dark that Mickey had heard in his own voice on more occasions than he could count and it made him grin despite the pain that was twisting in his chest. “Then they came, the men in suits. They show me pictures and all I can see is my babies with marks on their skin, marks that I had not put there…would never have put there. They tell me that Terry hurts you, that they cannot do anything because none of you will talk and then they tell me of him…”

Sonja shifted on the bed and Mickey moved his hands just enough to see her sit up, her eyes fixed on something he couldn’t see but the way that her lips pull into a sneer told Mickey exactly _who_ she was thinking about.

“They tell me that you think I am dead and that he is using my name to make name for himself,” her gaze flickered from the wall to meet Mickey’s. “Have you ever hated a man so much, Mihailo, that you want their death to never end? I want to feel his blood on my skin and see the light leave his eyes for what he has taken from me. So I take deal, I told them everything and they give me my freedom, my children…but I still feel as if I am in that place because my children do not want me and what is freedom when I have lost so much?”

Mickey didn’t say anything; there wasn’t a fucking thing he could say to make any of this shit better.

Reaching out he curled his fingers around hers, the crude message staring up at him as he stared at their hands.

Sonja didn’t say anything either and Mickey pretended not to notice the tears that dripped onto his tattoos as they sat there in the dark.

*O*

When Mickey left the house this time he felt more settled. The shit between him and Sonja wasn’t fixed but it didn’t feel as raw as it had when he’d first heard Mandy’s words. He didn’t trust Sonja yet, still didn’t quite believe that his Ma had been gullible enough to listen to Terry but Mickey understood the need to protect their family. So they weren’t fixed, it wasn’t like he was going to just move Mandy back home but he didn’t feel like he wanted to kill his own mother anymore or, if he was honest with himself, he didn’t feel like holding onto the lie that he could hurt Sonja anymore.

Frowning he trudged along, he didn’t know what Sonja had told the suits and just the thought of his Ma being a snitch made him grimace but if it had gotten her out of that fucked up situation he couldn’t really blame her for it. Hell, Mickey would’ve done the same thing a long time ago if he didn’t think Terry would just worm his way out of prison, like he always did.

Patting himself down Mickey sighed when he realized that he’d run out of smokes. He was going to start breaking Mandy’s fingers if the bitch didn’t stop stealing his cigarettes.

He only had twenty bucks left on him but Linda was paying them in a few days and Mickey figured that he could fleece some cash off the little fuckheads at school.

It wasn’t that far to the Kash and Grab plus if Kash was on Mickey wouldn’t even have to pay for shit.

The thought made Mickey grin because if nothing else fucking with Kash would definitely improve his mood.

*O*

Mickey crossed the street to the store and was reaching for the door when someone grabbed him.

The urge to swing was tempered by a flash of red at the corner of his eye and Mickey rounded on Ian with a glower.

“You fucking stupid? I almost knocked your fucking teeth out!” he spat but Ian just grinned at him.

“Shhh!” he hissed, pulling Mickey back into the shadows and for a second Mickey’s heartbeat ramped up as Ian pressed their bodies together but when the kid just glanced back at the store Mickey almost bitch slapped himself. Real life wasn’t like a fucking porno and Ian wasn’t stupid enough to start that shit out in the open…if Ian was even gay.

Craning his neck Mickey tried to see what the hell the kid was looking at.

“Why the fuck are we hiding out here?” he demanded when he realized that without a boost he couldn’t see a damn thing in the store.

“Linda just caught Kash fucking some guy and I think she’s gonna kill them both,” Ian whispered, though the look of amusement on the kid’s face said he really wasn’t all that worried about either of their bosses.

Mickey opened his mouth to say something but the words got lost beneath the sound of glass shattering inside the store.

Shoving at Ian, Mickey shifted closer to the door. “Move your ass, Red; I can’t see shit from here.”

The light from the store illuminated Ian’s smirk but Mickey just shoved him again, shifting close enough to peer under one of the posters that was glued to the shop’s glass.

Linda was standing in front of the till, her free hand gesticulating madly while she held a bottle in the other hand.

Mickey couldn’t see Kash but he figured that the idiot was probably hiding in the aisles.

“Guess I can’t fleece the dumbass anymore,” he muttered to himself.

“What? You knew about Kash…” Ian trailed off and Mickey glanced over his shoulder at him.

“Walked in on him and some guy, figured I scared him seeing as he’s been pretty free with whatever I want,” Mickey responded, shifting away from the glass. It wasn’t like Linda was gonna kill Kash and Mickey was starting to crave his smokes again.

Ian’s brows furrowed, “You mean you and Kash…”

“I swear to God, Gallagher, finish that sentence and I’ll rip your fucking tongue out!” Mickey snarled, the vehemence in his voice surprising even him.

Ian stared at him for a long moment before he huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, that was probably a fucked up idea, you don’t even like Kash.”

Mickey wrinkled his nose and glanced away. Ian had pretty much given him the perfect opening. He could open his mouth right now and just say he wasn’t gay. The kid wouldn’t call him on it and Mickey would be good, he could go back to fucking the chicks that he used to and he wouldn’t have to worry about shit like what was going on inside the store behind him. All it needed was three words, three fucking words but Mickey couldn’t make himself say it not when he could feel Ian watching him.

Instead he just shrugged, ignoring the fact that Ian had stepped even closer to him.

“So you were blackmailing Kash?”

“If you had to see his naked ass you’d have blackmailed him too,” Mickey groused, crossing his arms. “They better hurry it up in there; I didn’t walk all the way out here to listen to this fucking drama,”

“Jell-O?” Ian guessed with a grin and Mickey flipped him off because there wasn’t a damn thing funny about not having enough Jell-O.

“Smokes, fuckface,” he corrected and for some reason Ian’s grin just grew wider.

A moment later when the kid pulled out two packets of cigarettes, Mickey understood why.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mickey shrugged as he picked at a few loose strands in his jumper. It wasn’t really his place to say shit about what Debbie had asked them but he figured that Fiona had done him a few solids in the past and it was time to repay her for that. “Little Red was asking Mandy about our Ma the other day; she wanted to know if you could disown your parents.”
> 
> Fiona sucked in a sharp breath before snorting and shaking her head. “Jesus, this house is so fucked up.”
> 
> “Our neighbourhood’s fucked up, ain’t got shit to do with you guys. It’s like one of those Stephen King books, you know? All the shit that’s under the streets starts getting into people until we’re all fucked over.”

Mickey wasn’t sure why he sought out Fiona when they got back to the Gallagher house but he figured she’d know enough about the system fucking people over to give him a legitimate explanation about the Farnworth situation seeing as she was always harping on about education and shit.

Plus sticking with Fiona gave him a legitimate reason for avoiding Ian that didn’t make him look like a pussy.

“So this guy at school wanted me to do some drawings for a class,” Mickey started, glancing at Fiona out of the corner of his eyes.

The woman paused where she’d been sorting through the mail, her eyebrows hiking. “Are we talking actual drawing or…?” she trailed off and Mickey smirked because Fiona seemed to have this fucked up idea that the Milkovich kids were basically mules in Terry’s huge drug empire. It wasn’t all that far from the truth, they did push drugs for Terry but the last stash had run out months ago so mostly they’d been collecting from people who borrowed from them or the ones who paid them for protection.

“ _Drawings_ ,” Mickey stressed and Fiona nodded like that Yoda dude.

“And you’re sure this guy’s a teacher because I’ve heard the ‘Wanna come up and see my etches?’ line before,” Fiona pointed out.

Mickey’s brows furrowed in confusion. “What?”

Fiona stared at him for a moment, like she was trying to figure out the best way to tell Mickey some fucked up shit. “Are you sure he’s not just trying to find some down on his luck kid to get off with?”

Mickey flinched so hard that the chair beneath him screeched as it scraped the floor. “The fuck?”

“Like I said, it’s happened before,” Fiona muttered, glancing down at the mail. “Who’s going to believe a Southside kid if they cry rape when the person on the other end of the accusation has money and links?”

Mickey grimaced as he slumped against the counter. “That’s some fucked up shit,” he whispered and Fiona nodded.

“It is, but it’s an angle you’ve got to consider with this guy because people don’t just offer things without wanting something in return.”

“So you saying I should say no?”

Fiona shook her head. “I’m saying that you need someone to go talk to the school about this. I’d offer but I don’t have any ties to you.”

“You talking someone like Ma?”

Fiona’s brow hiked again at the suggestion. “If you’re willing to talk to her then yeah, she’d be the best person to go. I don’t see them getting anything past her,” she admitted with a rueful grin.

Mickey bit his lip as he considered that option. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Sonja would go, he just wasn’t sure he wanted her all up in his business but the alternative wasn’t good either. Mickey could take care of himself and if Farnworth put a finger on him Mickey would probably break it but that would just land his ass in prison.

It could work out in his favour as well because despite’s Sonja’s confession Mickey knew that she wasn’t just going to let him and Mandy stay away for much longer. This way he’d at least distract her by letting her think that she had an in with him.

Nodding he settled on that decision but there was one more thing that he wanted to know.

“Hey, you know when Monica’s gonna be back?”

Fiona paused, her eyes narrowing but she wasn’t focusing on Mickey so he figured that the reminder of her mother had just pissed her off. “Why?”

Mickey shrugged as he picked at a few loose strands in his jumper. It wasn’t really his place to say shit about what Debbie had asked them but he figured that Fiona had done him a few solids in the past and it was time to repay her for that. “Little Red was asking Mandy about our Ma the other day; she wanted to know if you could disown your parents.”

Fiona sucked in a sharp breath before snorting and shaking her head. “Jesus, this house is so fucked up.”

“Our neighbourhood’s fucked up, ain’t got shit to do with you guys. It’s like one of those Stephen King books, you know? All the shit that’s under the streets starts getting into people until we’re all fucked over.”

Fiona stared at him for a moment and Mickey knew she was surprised that he read but he wasn’t fucking dumb. Just because he’d never liked school didn’t mean he didn’t like learning new shit plus Stephen King was sort of fucked up himself and Mickey liked that.

“I’ve never heard it put better,” Fiona whispered, her lips curling into a smile. “You know you’re pretty damn smart when you’re not trying to be a smart ass.”

Mickey flipped her off as he hopped off his seat. “Fuck you, bitch. See if I ever try to make sense of your bullshit again!” he yelled as he clambered up the stairs.

“Don’t be like that Mickey, you know I love you for your vocabulary!” Fiona called after him and Mickey couldn’t help the snort of amusement that escaped him.

*O*

“If I asked you where I could get a gun what would you say?”

Mickey blinked slowly as he stared at Linda before turning to Ian who was gaping at them like a fucking idiot.

“Did she just say what I thought she just said?” he asked, when the redhead nodded Mickey turned back to face Linda who was glaring at them both.

“The fuck do you need a gun for?”

“To shoot my husband, why else would I need one?” Linda retorted like threatening to kill someone was the same as borrowing a cup of sugar. It was for Mickey but he’d never expected to hear that shit coming out of Linda’s mouth though considering the scene that he’d almost walked in on the night before, he shouldn’t have been surprised.

“Look, lady, your ass wouldn’t survive a night in lockup….”

“Then I won’t get caught,” Linda spat and Mickey almost pulled his hair out in frustration.

“How? You just fucking said you were gonna off the guy in front of witnesses. I’m not gonna squeal but what about Gallagher? He’s good and all that shit. If they question him, you’re fucked.”

“Fuck you too, Mick!” Ian grumbled as he slammed his book down on the counter.

Mickey side-eyed him because he didn’t know who Ian thought he was fooling. He’d been on the same damn page for the last twenty minutes.

“Do you expect me to just let him do this to me?!” Linda demanded and Mickey had to look away from the tears swelling in her eyes. He hated when chicks cried, unlike the anger that Mandy’s crying evoked, Mickey just felt uncomfortable around crying women. He never knew what the fuck to do to get them to stop and more often than not he just bailed on the situation because he wasn’t Dr Phil or some other quack.

“The guy likes to gargle man balls, that shit ain’t something to send your ass to prison for… just get a divorce,” he muttered, glowering at Ian when the redhead snorted like he was sniffing coke or some shit.

“And what do I say to my family? My husband likes taking cock more than he likes being a married man?”

“Sounds good to me,” Mickey responded glibly. He still didn’t know why the hell the woman was telling him her life story. Hell, he kinda liked her but not that much.

“Maybe he didn’t realize he was gay until after you got married,” Ian offered up but Mickey just rolled his eyes so hard it actually made his eyes hurt.

“If you like cock, you know you like cock from the second you fuck someone. The fuck are you on about, Gallagher?”

Ian’s eyes narrowed as he met Mickey’s gaze. “Some people don’t get to just go broadcasting their sexuality all around the place, _Milkovich_ ” he shot back and even though Mickey wanted to reach across the counter and strangle the kid, he had to admit that Ian had balls for trying to call him out.

“I don’t care _when_ he figured it out, he made a promise to me when we got married and he’s broken that with that…”

“If you say fag, Red‘s gonna blow a gasket. He’s big on that whole ‘be yourself and don’t care about what the other guy thinks’ bullshit, even if the other guy’s about to shank your ass.”

“Maybe if some people had the balls to actually admit their sexuality in a nice calm, not-fucked up way then the other guy might not be thinking of shanking him at all,” Ian retorted and Mickey smirked at him.

“Is that so, Gallagher?”

“What the hell are the two of you talking about?”

Linda’s screeching yanked Mickey back to the present and he ducked his head, unwilling to meet the woman’s eyes.

He couldn’t believe the shit that Ian got him to pull sometimes. It was like his common sense went right out the window the second that the kid opened his mouth.

“I meant if Kash had told you before your wedding that he was gay it would have been better,” Mickey heard Ian reply and he couldn’t help the grin that curled his lips because the kid was slick as fuck.

Linda rubbed at her eyes and Mickey sighed. “If you actually like _love_ the guy then I guess you need to figure some shit out with him…”

“I can’t divorce him,” Linda whispered.

“Then you’d better grow a cock real soon…”

“Mickey!” Ian shouted and Mickey glared back at him.

“I’m not lying, am I? He’s not gonna wake up and just decide to not like dick, people don’t do that shit cause who the fuck wants to get the shit beat out of them just for fucking someone?”

“What Mickey’s trying to say…”

“I just said what the fuck I was _trying_ to say. I’m speaking in the fucking English,” Mickey cut in but Ian just ignored him.

“…is that if Kash said he’s gay, he’s always going to be gay. It’s not going to change no matter how long you keep him married to you.”

Mickey rounded on Ian. “You repeated the exact same words that just came out of my mouth. Did you notice that, assface?”

“Yeah but she didn’t have to sort through all the swearing to actually hear me, did she?”

“Next time Carl asks for a shiv I’m giving it to him and when he shanks you in your sleep just remember that you’ve got your smart mouth to blame for that shit,” Mickey growled but Ian just smirked as he stared at Mickey’s mouth like they weren’t in the middle of trying to keep their boss out of jail.

“What about our kids?” Linda asked and Mickey shifted his attention back to her. Thankfully the tears were gone, she still looked homicidal but she didn’t look batshit crazy anymore, which was an improvement. “Does he think he’s just going to go off fucking men while I sit run the shop and take care of our family?”

Mickey shrugged because Terry had done worse so he didn’t see the big issue.

Linda glanced from him to Ian. “Can you do a few extra hours today?”

“Not like I’ve got shit to do,” Mickey responded turning back to Ian who nodded.

“I don’t have ROTC on the weekends,”

“Good, I need to sort some things out…” Linda murmured as she straightened her head scarf. “If that bastard I have for a husband shows up tell him that he’s not to step foot in this store if he knows what’s good for him,” she spat.

Mickey grinned at that because that sounded like he’d just gotten permission to kick Kash’s ass if he stepped through the door.

“Don’t even think about it,” Ian cut in and Mickey frowned at him. “If you put a hand on Kash he’s going straight to the cops and you know it.”

Mickey glowered because the kid had a point but that didn’t mean he couldn’t scare the fuck out of the guy. If Terry had taught them anything it was that psychological wounds could hurt just as much as physical ones.

Linda patted her pockets before nodding to herself. “I’ll be back in a few hours,” she told them as she breezed out the door, slamming it behind her.

Mickey scoffed cause it wasn’t like the shop door had done anything to her.

“Did you mean it?”

Mickey glanced at Ian who was watching him like he thought Mickey had all the answers to whatever shit was going on in his head.

“Mean what?” he asked, leaning back against the counter.

Ian eyed him for a long moment, then reached out and curled his fingers around Mickey’s wrist where it was resting on the counter top.

Mickey’s entire body tensed as he eyed the door but he didn’t drag his hand away like he knew he should have. Ian’s fingers were trembling, the shivers vibrating into Mickey’s skin and he could almost taste the kid’s fear. It was that more than anything that kept him standing there.

“You want something, Red?” he finally choked out but Ian just shook his head as he pulled his hand away. It was something so fucking small, so simple that Mickey wouldn’t have paid the touch any attention if Ian had been a girl but Ian wasn’t a girl and just those fingers on Mickey’s wrist felt more intimate than most of the shit that he’d done before.

Turning his head slightly Mickey caught sight of the flush painting Ian’s cheeks and he figured that the kid understood how important what had just happened was.

It was more than admitting something to himself, Mickey had _let_ Ian touch him. He hadn’t pulled away, hadn’t made an issue of it and if felt like acceptance of a sort.

“We’re good, right?”

Ian’s voice was barely a whisper but Mickey heard the hope in the other teen’s tone and it made him bite his lip to hide his own grin because it felt like he was finally getting something that he wanted, instead of what was expected of him.

“Yeah, we’re good,” he responded before shifting away from the counter because acceptance or not Mickey wasn’t about to get fucking mushy over this shit.

“What do you think is gonna happen with Linda and Kash?” Ian inquired, his voice just as steady as it had been when Linda was there and Mickey was grateful for the return of normalcy.

“Fucked if I know,” Mickey muttered, “If she’s smart she’d kick his ass to the curb. He’s a fucking cheater; don’t matter if he’s doing that shit with guys or chicks.”

Ian nodded, his eyes narrowing. “You know it explains a lot, I mean he kept staring at you when you weren’t looking. I had a talk with him about it…warned him off.”

Mickey bristled, “He fucking did what?”

Ian stared at him for a second, like Mickey was being stupid for getting angry about that fucker perving on him. “I said I talked to him,” he repeated and this time Mickey heard something in the redhead’s tone that made his brows hike.

“Yeah, tough guy?”

Ian just shrugged, “It’s not like I was going to just stand by and let him do it.”

Mickey smirked because he knew jealousy when he heard it but considering that he’d done the same he didn’t feel like calling Ian on his bullshit because the kid was pretty good at turning the tables on him. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to give the kid hell for it later because Mickey didn’t need anyone to protect him. He’d been doing a fine job of it the last ten years and he’d keep fighting his own battles until he was dead.


End file.
